Tejas Shirse wins men’s 110m hurdles silver medal at World Athletics meet in Geneva

National Record-holder Tejas Shirse won silver medal in men’s 110m hurdles at Atletica Geneve – EAP, a World Athletics Continental Tour (Bronze level) meet, in Geneva, Switzerland on Saturday.

The 21-year-old Tejas finished second with a timing of 13.60s. Colombia’s John Paredes, who clocked 13.49s, clinched the gold medal.

In women’s long jump, Shaili Singh finished fourth. Shaili and Jogaile Petrokaite were joint-third with 6.33m. To break the tie, their second-best jumps were compared where the Lithuanian (6.30m) edged the Indian (6.28m). Local favourite Annik Kalin took gold with 6.56m.

Shaili had recently won silver medal at the JBL Jump Fest in Kosice, Slovakia, on Thursday but the World Athletics marked all the results of that meet as UNC (uncertified), though it did not offer any explanation for this move. This means that the world-ranking points from Slovakia would not be added to her Road to Paris Olympics rankings.

Tejas and Shaili will be in action during the National Inter-State Athletics Championships in Panchkula from June 27 to 30 in one final attempt to qualify for Paris Games.

The automatic qualification mark for Olympics for men’s 110m hurdles is 13.27s. A total of 40 athletes will compete in Paris. Twenty-three hurdlers have made the cut by meeting the qualifying standard while the remaining 17 qualify through world rankings. Tejas, who set a new National Record at 13.41s last month, is 61st in the Road to Paris Rankings.

For women’s long jump, the automatic qualification mark is 6.86. The National Record belongs to Anju Bobby George (6.83m) with Shaili (6.76m) in second place on the all-time list. A total of 32 athletes will compete in women’s long jump in Paris. Fifteen of those have booked their spots through meeting the qualifying standard while the remaining 17 make it through world rankings. Shaili is currently ranked 46th.