The 23-year-old Murali Sreeshankar became the first Indian male long jumper to advance to the World Athletics Championships finals on the first day of the competitions.
Sreeshankar, who had entered the championships as a dark horse for a medal at the second spot in the season's top list, had the best jump of exactly 8m to finish second in qualification round Group B and seventh overall.
Anju Bobby George was the first Indian to make it to the World Championships long jump finals and the first to win a medal. He had won bronze in the year 2003 in Paris.
On the other hand, Jeswin Aldrin, and Muhammed Anees Yahiya were the other two Indian players who failed to make it to the final round after finishing ninth and 11th in the Group A qualification round with the best jumps of 7.79m and 7.73m respectively.
Those who achieved 8.15m or the 12 best performers from across the two groups qualify for the finals scheduled on Sunday.
During the qualifying round, only Japan's Yuki Hashioka (8.18m) and Marquis Dendy (8.16m) of the USA crossed the 8.15m mark.
Sreeshankar could not touch the automatic qualifying mark of 8.15m but made it to the finals as one of the 12 best performers.
The 23-year-old has been a consistent performer with his 8.36m jump at the Federation Cup in April, followed by 8.31m and 8.23m at an event in Greece and National Inter-State Championships respectively.
Olympic champion Miltiadis Tentoglou (8.03m) of Greece, who won the Group B qualification round ahead of Sreeshankar, world season leader Simon Ehammer (8.09m) of Switzerland, and Cuba's Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist Maykel Masso (7.93m) were also among those who qualified for the finals.
This is the 18th edition of the World Championships and it is the first time that the US is hosting the event.
(Inputs from PTI)
