Kiran Pahal finishes seventh in 400m heat

PARIS: India’s Kiran Pahal failed to book an automatic semifinal spot in women’s 400m after finishing seventh in her heat race of the Paris Olympics on Monday and she will now run in repechage round.

Kiran, who turned 24 on Monday, clocked 52.51 seconds which was well below her season’s and personal best of 50.92 seconds.

World champion Marileidy Paulino of Dominica won the heat with a time of 49.42, followed by Aaliyah Butler (50.52) of USA and Susanne Gogl-Walli (50.67) of Austria.

Top three in each of the six heats advanced to semifinal.

All the others – except for DNS (Did Not Start), DNF (Did Not Finish) and DQ (Disqualified) – moved to the repechage round to be held on Tuesday.

Pahal had made direct qualification to the Paris Olympics after clocking her personal best of 50.92 seconds in the National Inter-State Championships in June, A repechage round was introduced in Paris Olympics to all individual track events from 200m to 1500m, including the hurdles events.