Sports India

Long jumper Anju Bobby George’s performances have not been encouraging of late. That has put India’s ace athlete in a spot.

It has not only affected her world ranking, but now her chance to be among the top seven athletes for the fourth edition of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Athletics Finals (to be held in Stuttgart (Germany) on September 9 and 10) is also dim.

According to latest IAAF world ranking, with 1237 points, Anju is down the ladder from fourth to seventh spot. Winner of bronze in the last edition of the IAAF World Athletics Finals, Anju, this year, hasn’t accumulated enough points to gain automatic qualification.

As per the new IAAF scoring system, the top seven athletes with maximum points — earned from participating in the IAAF World Athletics Tour (WAT) which includes IAAF Golden League and Super Grand Prix meets — will be eligible for the Finals.

In the last two editions, overall IAAF ranking had been taken into consideration for participation in the competition.

Her Athletics Tour ranking now is a tied 18th (with four others), with six points. Incidentally, Russian Tatyana Kotova who tops the IAAF world rankings list, is among them.

Lyudmila Kolchanova (Russia), Sachiko Masumi (Japan) and Olga Kucherenko (Russia) are the three others tied with Anju.

Last May, Anju earned six points from her seventh-place finish in the Doha Super Grand Prix. Since then she hasn’t participated in any of the Grand Prix Meets.

Anju, it is learnt, is not focusing on the European circuit, but the Doha Asian Games.