Shivpal Singh was one of two athletes to clear the qualifying mark set by the AFI for the Doha Asian Championships next month. The 23-year old threw the javelin 81.85m in his very first attempt to better the Asian target by more than a metre on the first day of the 23rd Federation Cup here on Friday.
Also making the grade was 22-year old discus thrower Kamalpreet Kaur, who got the better of Commonwealth Games medallist Navjeet Kaur Dhillon and cleared the 58.50m target twice in her four legitimate attempts.
While Kamalpreet’s throw earned her a gold, Shivpal’s effort saw him lead the charge into the finals, coming as it did in the qualifying round. He, however, has now set his sights higher.
“Honestly, I was expecting something like 78-79m, I had not thought about qualifying only, that too so quickly. I have only had four throwing sessions since the Asiad, most of the time it has been weight and fitness training. But now I will be trying for the 83m mark tomorrow,” he said.
That 83m mark is qualifying for the World Championships later this year. Shivpal, who had been training in South Africa along with Neeraj Chopra and a host of other throwers, credited the physios there for his return to form after an elbow injury that also affected his performance at Jakarta.
“I picked up the injury first in 2012. Once you are injured, it is always at the back of your mind. But the support staff there are brilliant and helped a lot in recovery,” he added.
Kamalpreet, though, performed through injury with painkillers, having hurt her lower back during training a month back. That did not stop her from achieving her target.
On the track, the much-anticipated showdown between Dutee Chand and Hima Das in the 200m was not to be with the latter withdrawing from the competition to concentrate only on 400m. The men’s 800m, though, would be an exciting affair with Jinson Johnson and Manjit Singh both advancing to the final, along with Sajeesh Joseph and Amoj Jacob. Jinson was the fastest in heats, with a timing of 1:51.06, and would have to perform extraordinarily to breach the 1:48 qualifying mark. Also impressing was S. Siva who bettered his own meet record in pole vault.
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