India’s top athletes to enter Asian Games with national championships
Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra is expected to skip the National Inter-State Athletics Championships but long jumper Murali Sreesankar led the rest of the country’s athletes as they try to seal a place in the Asian Games with the competition starting on Thursday. Chopra is recovering from the injury but even if he was fit, he would have been exempted as he has to train for top-level international events ahead of the World Championships in Budapest in August. Avinash Sable, who broke Kenya’s dominance with a silver medal in the 3000m steeplechase event at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, has also been exempted from competing in the event, which is the final selection event for the upcoming Asian Games to be held in Hangzhou, China.
The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) had earlier this year made it clear that participation in national inter-state championships is mandatory for athletes to be considered for the Asian Games (September 23-October 8). In the absence of Chopra and Sable, Sreesankar will be the center of attraction in the championship. He finished third for the first time at the Paris Diamond League last week with an effort of 8.09m. Sreeshankar will face a tough challenge from Jaswin Aldrin, who broke his national record earlier this year with an effort of 8.42m. Other top performers among men will be sprinter Amlan Borgohain (200m), decathlete Tejaswin Shankar (not in the high jump in which he won a bronze medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games), shot putter Tejinderpal Singh Toor, triple jumper Praveen Chitravel and Aldos Paul.
Among women, players like sprinter Hima Das (recovering from injury) and Dutee Chand (suspension due to dope) will not take part. In his absence, all eyes will be on hurdler Jyoti Yaraji (100m and 100m hurdles), long distance runner Parul Chowdhary (5000m and 3000m steeplechase), long jumper Shaili Singh, javelin thrower Anu Rani. . There will be only four finals on the first day which include men’s and women’s 20km walk and men’s and women’s 10000m race. The evening session could not be held due to the Intercontinental Cup football tournament scheduled to be held at the Kalinga Stadium till Sunday. In the absence of national record holder Akshdeep Singh, the experienced Sandeep Kumar will be eyeing a solid show in the men’s 20km race walk.
In the women’s 20km walk, the contest is likely to be between the experienced Priyanka Goswami and Bhawna Jat Goswami. Bhawna has already qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics and the Budapest World Championships. Sanjivani Jadhav will be a strong contender in the women’s 10000 meters race. She had finished second in the Portland Track Festival in the US earlier this month with a personal best timing of 32:46.88. Many athletes will also aim to qualify for the World Championships to be held in Hungary (August 19-27) from this event. The championship was to be held after a month as per the earlier calendar of AFI but it is being held now. This time the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) has asked the member countries to send their respective teams for the Asian Games 75 days in advance i.e. by July 15.
The athletics events of the Hangzhou Asian Games begin on 29 September. In the presence of national record holder Praveen, Birmingham Commonwealth Games gold and silver medalist Paul and Abdullah Abubakar respectively, the men’s triple jump will see a tough fight. In men’s javelin throw, Chopra has inspired youngsters with his performances at the international level. At present eight active Indian players including Chopra have been able to throw the javelin over 80 metres, possibly the most in the world. Six of these players will feature in the championship, including veteran Shivpal Singh, who is making a comeback after serving a one-year suspension for a doping offence. The other five players are DP Manu, Kishore Kumar Jena, Vikrant Malik, Rohit Yadav and Sachin Yadav. In the women’s long jump, 19-year-old Shelly Singh, Ancy Sojan and Nayana James will be the ones to watch out for.
