Federation Cup: India’s crème de la crème brace up for some cut and thrust

Some of India’s biggest athletes will be seen in action over the next four days at the Calicut University Stadium.

FILE PHOTO: Women’s 400m runner Jisna Mathew will return to her alma mater.

Athletics is coming home.

Calicut University, which has produced some of India’s finest track-and-field athletes including P. T. Usha and Anju Bobby George, is all set to host the Federation Cup.

It is easily the biggest event to be staged at the Calicut University Stadium, where the synthetic track was laid in 2016. And some of India’s biggest athletics will be seen in action over the next four days.

There are some exciting contests to look forward to, like the women’s 100m that will feature Dutee Chand and Hima Das. Missing from the men’s 100m meet, though, is the National record holder Amiya Mallick, who said he wasn’t prepared fully. In his absence, the focus could be on the 21-year-old Gurindervir Singh.

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Also in the limelight could be athletes like Amlan Borgohain (men’s 200m), Amoj Jacob and Arokia Rajiv (men’s 400m), Manjit Singh (men’s 800m), Jinson Johnson (men’s 1500m), M. Sreeshankar (men’s long jump), Tajinderpal Singh Toor (men’s shot put) and Priya Mohan (women’s 200m).

Return to alma mater

For Sreeshankar and Jinson, it is a return to their alma mater. So it is for a few others, such as R. Anu (women’s 400m hurdles) and Jisna Mathew (women’s 400m).

And watching Jisna with particular interest will be her coach Usha. The athlete extraordinaire used to scorch the mud track, not far from the synthetic one.