PU Chitra clocks 1500m personal best but misses out on semifinal berth

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Image Courtesy: Economic Times

Asian champion P.U. Chitra finished eighth in the women’s 1500m heats, but it proved insufficient to fetch her a semifinal berth at the IAAF World Athletics Championships 2019 in Doha on Wednesday.

Image Courtesy: Economic Times

The Indian clocked a personal best of 4:11.10 seconds to finish eighth. This saw her better the previous best of 4:11.55 secured at inter-state nations last year. The race however was very slow with 10 athletes of the first heat being faster than the second one’s winner.

The top six from each of the three heats and the next six fastest qualified for the semifinals.

The overall fastest happened to be Sifan Hassan from Netherlands, who clocked 4:03.88 seconds. Sweden’s Yolanda Ngarambre (4:09.22) was the slowest qualifier.