London 2012 Triple Jump: Renjith Maheshwary out of Olympics

Renjith Maheshwary crashed out of the men's triple jump competition in his maiden Olympic Games after fouling all three attempts in the qualification round here on Tuesday.

Maheshwary, who won a bronze in the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi and finished fourth in 2006 Asian Games at Doha, failed to produce a single legal jump and was eliminated without a mark against his name here at the Olympic stadium.

The 26-year-old athlete, whose personal best is 17.07 and season's best is 16.85, thus ended his campaign on a most bizarre and unceremonious way.

He took two foul jumps in the first two attempts in the group A qualifications and simply ran through in the third attempt, much to the dismay of the Indian spectators who turned up to watch him.

Twelve jumpers qualified for the finals with Benjamin Compaore of France topping Group A with 17.06m mark, while Christian Taylor of USA emerged at the top in Group B with a clearance of 17.21m.

It was indeed a shocking lack of application from Maheshwary, on whom a huge amount of money was spent for his training overseas.