0.24 seconds stand between Jinson Johnson and 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.

The Tokyo 2020 event had one of the toughest qualifying marks for the Olympics, set at 3:35:00. To put things into perspective, Matthew Centrowitz, Jr. of United States clocked 3:50.00 to win the Rio 2016 gold. Speaking about the run, TOI quoted the sprinter saying, "I was expecting to set new national record but did not expect to win the silver. I will now go to Colorado in the USA for further training and then to Doha for World Championships. I am very happy. But my ultimate aim is to do well in Tokyo 2020."

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).