Near-Miss at the Paris Olympics: Indian Athletes Fall Short in Women's 5000m Race

Indian athletes Parul Chaudhary and Ankita Dhyani missed qualifying for the finals in the women's 5000m race at the Paris Olympics. Chaudhary came close to her national record but finished 24th overall. Despite the strong competition from top runners like Faith Kipyegon, neither athlete could progress to the final round.

Parul Chaudhary missed her national record time by one-third of a second but that was enough for an overall 24th position as she and Ankita Dhyani failed to qualify for the final round of the women's 5000m race here on Friday.

Chaudhary, who holds the national record of 15 minutes 10.35 seconds, clocked 15:10.68 to finish 14th in heat number one while Ankita ended at 20th and last position in heat number one and overall 40th.

Reigning Olympic 1500m champion Faith Kipyegon of Kenya topped the qualification round with a time of 14:57.56, followed by Tokyo Games gold medallist Sifan Hassan (14:57.65) of the Netherlands. Current 5000m world record holder Gudaf Tsegay of Ethiopia was fifth overall with a time of 14:57.84.

Only 16 athletes -- first eight in each of the two heats -- advance to the final round.

Chaudhary was competing in two events in Paris Olympics. Her pet event is the 3000m steeplechase which she will run on Sunday (heat races).

Chaudhary had qualified for the 5000m race through world ranking quota as she could not breach the direct entry time of 14:52.00.

Ankita also qualified for the Olympics through world ranking quota and she made the cut at the last minute.

(With inputs from agencies.)