Indian athletes reach long jump, 1500m, women's 100m hurdles finals in Asian Games
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Hangzhou: Indian hurdlers Jyothi Yarraji and Nithya Ramraj made it to the women's 100-meter hurdle final, and champion long jumpers Jeswin Aldrin and Murali Sreeshankar also breezed through, keeping their medal hopes alive at the Asian Games on Saturday.
In order to go to the women's 100m hurdles final, Asian champion Yarraji placed second in her heat with a time of 13.03 seconds.
China's Yuwei Lin finished first with a personal best time of 12.79.
India will have a second hurdler in the event as Nithya Ramraj finished fifth in her heat but qualified as the second-fastest loser with a time of 13.30.
Second-fastest Asian hurdler Yarraji had won gold at the Asian Athletics Championships.
She has broken the national record in the 100m hurdles a staggering seven times.
In the long jump, Commonwealth Games silver medallist Sreeshankar jumped more than the automatic qualification mark of 7.90m to make it to the final.
The 24-year-old from Kerala, who boasts a personal and season's best of 8.41m, produced a first jump of 7.97 to directly make the cut.
Having started off with a foul, Asia's best Jeswin Aldrin's third attempt of 7.67 was not enough for an automatic qualification but he still made the cut after finishing second in his heat and among the top 12.
There will be two Indians in the men's 1500m final as Jinson Johnson and Ajay Kumar qualified from their respective heats.
Johnson finished fifth with a time of 3:56.22 to seal an automatic qualification spot.
Ajay Kumar was second to cruise into the final with a timing of 3:51.93, finishing second in his heat.
Finals of all three events, women's 100m hurdles, men's long jump and men's 1500m -- are slated on Sunday.
With PTI inputs