Indian athletics in 2024: Glut of options a happy headache

Neeraj Chopra, the reigning Olympic champion and 2023 World Championships gold medalist, will likely remain the standard bearer of Indian athletics in Paris.

Leading the pack: In 2023, Neeraj Chopra became the first Indian to win a gold at the Worlds, a year after he’d become the first Indian to win a silver in the competition. | Photo Credit: Getty Images

The year 2023 was a remarkable one for Indian athletics. The country achieved its best-ever medal tally at the Asian Games and won its first-ever World Championship gold medal. However, the true measure of sports development will be seen during the 2024 Olympic season.

Although nine Indians have already met the qualification standards for the Paris Games, there’s still some way to go to match the record of 23 who competed in Tokyo three years ago. But it’s not unlikely that India will have a similar number eventually earn the right to compete at the Olympics. While more athletes are expected to match the qualification standards, others are likely to qualify based on rankings by the June 30 cut-off date.

Neeraj Chopra will likely remain the standard bearer of Indian athletics in Paris. The reigning Olympic champion qualified for the quadrennial games after creating history by winning gold at the 2023 World Championships. He will be one of the favourites to medal. While Neeraj might be India’s best bet in the men’s javelin throw competition, he’s not the only one. India is theoretically permitted a maximum of three participants in each event at the Olympics (assuming they meet the qualification criteria of an 85.5m throw inside the qualification period). Two Indians — Neeraj and Kishore Kumar Jena — have already met these standards. Currently, there are three others— Rohit Yadav, DP Manu, and Shivpal Yadav — who are either close to the qualification standard or (as in the case of Shivpal) exceeded it in the past.

It is possible that Indian athletics may face a scenario where an athlete meets the strict Olympic qualification standard but still fails to secure a place on the national team. Adille Sumariwalla, the president of the Athletics Federation of India, has stated that if more than three Indian javelin throwers meet the qualifying criteria, then a process must be devised to select the other two participants, excluding Neeraj. This implies that even an athlete like Jena, who qualified for the Olympics with an impressive throw of 87.54m at the Asian Games, may have to further improve his personal best to ensure his spot at the Olympics.

Standing out: Avinash Sable has been a standout performer in India’s individual track events over the past Olympic cycle. | Photo Credit: Getty Images

Should Jena make it to the Paris Games, it would be a tremendous milestone in the 28-year-old’s career, which only really took off in 2023 when he made his international debut. While it remains to be seen how he holds his nerve should he compete at the Olympics, there are other Indians who would have the experience of competing at the biggest stage in track and field athletics.

Avinash Sable has been a standout performer in India’s individual track events over the past Olympic cycle. During his debut Olympics in Tokyo back in 2021, the now-29-year-old broke his national record in the men’s 3000m steeplechase in the heats and broke it three more times in 2022, when he also achieved a historic silver medal-winning performance to break the Kenyan hegemony at the Commonwealth Games. Although he won gold and a silver medal at the Asian Games, 2023 has been a less-than-stellar year for Sable by his lofty standards. The biggest disappointment would be his crashing out in the heats of the Budapest World Championships.

Sable, though, admitted he ran a tactically poor race in Hungary and has vowed not to make that same mistake in Paris. Expect fireworks if he runs to his potential and leaves nothing behind on the track at the Stade de France.

Another star looking to make up for past letdowns will be Murali Sreeshankar. The long jumper had a tough time building up to the Tokyo Olympics and had to prove his fitness before he could compete in the Japanese capital. Although Sreeshankar has shown significant improvement in the last couple of years, clearing eight metres on seven of the 12 times he competed last year, including winning silver at the Asian Championships (8.37m) and Asian Games (8.19m), he still has a blemish in his record. At the Budapest World Championships, which was one of the highest-profile competitions of the last season, Sreeshankar produced his worst performance (7.74m) since the Tokyo Olympics (7.69m). As they head towards Paris, both Sreeshankar and Sable will be looking to eliminate this blotch on their otherwise spotless list of achievements.

Meanwhile, another set of India’s top contenders will have their sights trained on the 2024 World Athletics Relays Championships in the Bahamas in May. India needs to finish in the top 14 teams at the World Relays to qualify directly for the Olympics. Although it could still qualify for Paris based on its rankings, it would probably want to book its tickets on the first attempt. The quartet of Muhammad Anas, Amoj Jacob, Muhammad Ajmal, and Rajesh Ramesh have broken the psychological barrier of three minutes (2:59.05) in the heats of the World Championships, where they almost managed to run down the mighty American team, and then once more in the final, where they finished a historic fifth. That result and a subsequent gold medal at the Asian Games would only have boosted their confidence to replicate their best run at Paris in half a year.

It’s a testament to the meteoric progression of Indian track and field that even a team as accomplished as the men’s relay team would only be one of the many events for sports fans to focus on.

The Olympics are likely to throw up even bigger stars. Although Jeswin Aldrin has yet to qualify for the Olympics, the Indian national record holder in the men’s long jump will always be considered one of the dark horses of the event, capable of pulling off a massive leap at any point in time. Women’s javelin thrower Annu Rani might have had a middling 2023 season but salvaged it with the third-ever best throw of her career (62.92m) to win gold at the Asian Games, beating, amongst others, the reigning Olympic champion. Annu hasn’t yet qualified directly for the Olympics and might have to depend on her ranking to see her through.

She would back herself to recreate a moment of magic, as she did in Hangzhou last year, if she booked a place in her second Games at the age of 31.