Athletics
0.24 seconds stand between Jinson Johnson and Olympic quota
It was a bittersweet run for the 21-year-old as though he consolidated the World Championship berth, he narrowly missed out the Olympic quota
Ace Indian sprinter Jinson Johnson gave an exemplary performance at the ISTAF Berlin event to finish with a silver, clocking 3 minutes 35.24 seconds. With this effort, he qualified for the World Championships slated for later this month in Doha from September 28 to October 6. The World Championships qualifying time was 3:36.00. However, it was a bittersweet run for the 28-year-old as, though he consolidated the World Championship berth, he narrowly missed out the Tokyo Olympic quota by a trivial 0.24 seconds.
It was still a majestic sprint from Johnson as he shattered his own national record, clocking 3 minutes 35.24 seconds to finish second behind Joshua Thompson of United States at Berlin’s Olympic Stadium. The earlier national record was previously held by the Kerala runner at 3:37.62 which he had clocked at Nijmegen in the Netherlands in June. He also holds the 800m national record (1:45.65).Â