Halle (Germany), May 25 (UNI) India's Annu Rani secured a silver medal in the women's javelin throw event at the Hallesche Werfertage 2024 athletics meet with a throw of 59.09 meters here on Saturday.
In her third competition of the 2024 athletics season, Annu Rani achieved her best throw on her first attempt. The Hallesche Werfertage is part of the World Athletics Continental Tour Bronze level.
Jo-Ane van Dyk of South Africa, the reigning African Games champion, won the gold medal with a throw of 60.82 meters. Alizee Minard, the 2022 French champion, earned the bronze with a distance of 58.49 meters in a field of 12 competitors.
Rani’s subsequent throws measured 55.19 meters, 57.69 meters, and 55.79 meters, with two of her attempts being invalid. The 31-year-old Indian athlete began her 2024 season earlier this month in Germany, achieving a throw of 60.68 meters in Offenburg and enduring wet conditions to log a 56.07-meter throw in Rehlingen. She has been training in Germany under coach Werner Daniels since late last year.
Rani holds a personal best of 63.82 meters, achieved at the Indian Open Javelin Throws Competition in 2022, which is also the national record for women's javelin throw in India. The qualification mark for the Paris 2024 Olympics is set at 64 meters.
Meanwhile, in the men's javelin throw event, two Indians - Vikrant Malik and Sahil Silwal - participated. Vikrant Malik, with a personal best of 81.82 meters, won the bronze medal with a throw of 79.99 meters, achieved on his third attempt.
Sahil Silwal finished fifth with a throw of 77.23 meters. India's national record holder Neeraj Chopra holds the record at 89.94 meters.
Poland’s Marcin Krukowski won gold with a distance of 82.69 meters, while Germany’s 19-year-old Max Dehning, who breached the 90-meter mark with a throw of 90.20 meters in February, took silver with a throw of 81.18 meters.
In the men’s hammer throw event, India's Damneet Singh finished 11th with a best effort of 65.55 meters.
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