World Athletics C'ships: Gulveer Singh narrowly misses the final, Annu Rani falters

The long-distance runner Gulveer Singh missed out on a spot in the final of the men's 5000m by just 0.19s at the World Championships in Tokyo, Japan, on Friday.

The national record holder started strong in his debut 5000m at the World C'ships, but fell short of the final, edged out by Norway's two-time Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen for the final spot.

Gulver gave a brilliant start to the race and was leading this strong pack till the halfway mark, but he slowly dropped to third, which he tried to maintain in the end, but finished 9th with a time of 13:42.34s.

Poor outing for Annu Rani

Indian ace female javelin thrower Annu Rani had a dreadful end in the women's javelin throw event as she finished in 15th place in just qualification Group A with a sub-par throw of 55.18m.

Annu had high hopes of making it to the final, especially after her brilliant season where she threw multiple 60m+ throws, but she couldn't deliver this at the biggest stage.

The automatic qualification mark of 62.50m was less than her season best of 62.59m, but it was not her day as she wasn't able to find even the 58m+ throws, exiting from the competition.