India’s Kushare finishes 6th after qualifying as 34th among 36 participants in high jump final

Sarvesh Kushare was never in the mix for the medals in men's high jump at the World Athletics Championships. But the Indian produced a personal best of 2.28 metres to leave Tokyo with an impressive sixth place on Tuesday.

New Zealand's Olympic champion Hamish Kerr came up with a spectacular 2.36 m effort to pip Korea's Sanghyeok Woo for the gold medal. The Korean, who led the final, first with 2.31 m and then with 2.34 m, lost out in the jump-off.

Woo and Czechia's Jan Stefela were in the prime position, clearing 2.31 m on their second attempts, until Kerr and Ukraine's Oleh Doroshchuk kept it a four-man race by clearing the height in their final attempts.

Doroshchuk and Stefela faltered at 2.34, but Woo and Kerr cleared it; the Olympic champion was the second to do so after his Asian opponent put him under pressure with a fine jump.

Kerr sailed over 2.36 m in his first attempt, while Woo stumbled, and could not go over an improved height of 2.38 m either in his two remaining attempts.

Earlier, 30-year-old Kushare set his personal best in his third attempt at 2.28 m, to finish behind the trio on the podium, followed by Doroshchuk and American JuVaughn Harrison (2.28 m). Kushare is the son of an onion farmer in a village near Nashik in Maharashtra. He used to practice on makeshift mats made using fodder.

Kushare, the first Indian to qualify for the high jump final, had made it to the championships in the 34th spot among the 36 participants. He was also the first Indian high jumper to qualify for the Olympics in the 2024 Paris Games.