On Day 1 of Athletics of the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, Jinson Johnson took to a wet track in the 800m heats and failed to set a time to qualify for the semi-finals. Having barely qualified for the Olympic Games with a time of 1:45.98 in Bengaluru last month (the qualification time for Rio was 1:46.00), Johnson ran a time of 1:47.27 to finish fifth in Heat 3.
World record holder David Rudisha of Kenya finished first in the heat with a time of 1:45.09 to qualify automatically. South Africa’s Rynardt van Rensburg ran a season-best time of 1:45.67 to qualify while Great Britain’s Michael Rimmer finished third and qualified with a time of 1:45.99.
The top three from each heat qualify for the semi-finals while the next three fastest also qualify for the semis. Unfortunately, Johnson’s time was not good enough to allow him to qualify as one of the faster athletes who did not finish in the top three of their heat.
Johnson started in lane 7 and initially took the lead near the 100m mark before Rudisha surged ahead. At the 250m mark, Johnson stumbled in the crowd and that cost him a couple of precious seconds as he looked to gather his momentum. It wasn’t until the last 200m of the race that he picked up the pace to overtake Anthony Romaniw of Canada and Lutimar Paes of Brazil.
Johnson had won three gold medals in various legs of the Asian Grand Prix last year and even won a silver medal at the Asian Athletics Championship in 2015. He was the first Indian athlete to qualify for the 800m since 1980. Sriram Singh holds the Indian men’s 800m record with a time of 1:45.77.
