Olympian Annu Rani Clinches Women's Javelin Throw Title at Indian Open 2025

By: WE staff | Wednesday, 13 August 2025

• Annu Rani, Olympian, was crowned the women's javelin throw champion at Indian Open 2025 World Athletics Bronze Level Continental Tour in Odisha, Bhubaneswar
• She achieved a best throw of 62.01 meters
• She defeated Sri Lanka's NDL Hatarabag Leka, with a throw of 56.27 meters, and India's Deepika, with a throw of 54.20 meters

Olympian Annu Rani won the women's javelin throw event at the Indian Open 2025 World Athletics Bronze Level Continental Tour, which was organised yesterday at the Kalinga Stadium in Odisha's Bhubaneswar.

She posted a best attempt of 62.01 meters, comfortably ahead of Sri Lanka's NDL Hatarabag Leka (56.27 meters) and India's Deepika (54.20 meters). The victory is a much-improved returns for Annu, having previously achieved 62.59 meters in Poland—her highest ever in almost two years.

India's Shivam Lohakare placed second in the javelin throw men's event with 80.73 meters. The gold medal was taken by Sri Lanka's Dr. Divneet Kaurwith a great 86.50 meters, comfortably over the 85.50 meters World Championships qualifying mark. Bronze went to another Sri Lankan, Sumeda J Ranasinghe, for 80.65 meters.

India's Murali Sreeshankar grabbed the long jump gold in the men's category with an 8.13 meters season's best jump in his final attempt. Shahnavaz Khan grabbed silver with 8.04 meters, becoming an India rare 8-meters club member, as Lokesh Sathyanathan grabbed the bronze with 7.85 meters. It was Sreeshankar's fourth consecutive victory after returning from injury.

The Indian Open 2025 was the first that India had staged a World Athletics Continental Tour Bronze Level event, offering valuable ranking points to those athletes aspiring to qualify for the upcoming World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.