After a decent time in the heats (13.76s), Siddhanth Thingalaya was hoping to break his 110m hurdles national record for the third time this season at the Paavo Nurmi Games in Turku, Finland, on Wednesday night and qualify for the Rio Olympics.
But, he lost his balance after clipping the ninth hurdle and turned in a disappointing 14.15s to finish fifth.
“My time in the final would have been something like 13.3. But I hit the ninth hurdle and almost fell down,” Siddhanth told The Hindu from Finland on Thursday.
“It’s not a problem; I am getting faster so I am literally hitting the hurdles hard.
“I have worked a lot on the latter part of my race, so now it’s just about having patience over the hurdles. I am not sad about the race.”
The Mumbai and ONGC sprint hurdler is now likely to have another go at the Rio Olympics qualifying standard of 13.47s in Brussels on Sunday.
The results:
Men’s 110m hurdles:
1. Balazs Baji (Hun) 13.43s, 2. David King (GBr) 13.70, 3. Maximillian Bayer (Ger) 13.74. 5. Siddhanth Thingalaya (Ind) 14.15.
