With Neeraj Chopra hitting a wonderful high with every meet, Indian athletics should be bright and brimming. And efforts should be made to give athletes the best facilities at national meets so they can bring out their best too.
Sadly, that does not seem to be happening if the recent National Federation Cup — an important qualification meet ahead of the Asian Championships in Thailand in July — in Ranchi is any indication.
It is a busy season with three majors lined up — the Asian Championships, the World Championships, and the Asian Games — and athletes are desperate to achieve the qualification standards while also picking up precious world ranking points that could help them qualify for the Worlds in Budapest in August.
While the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) insists athletes should repeat their best performances — that came elsewhere and earlier in the season — in selection meets at home if they want to go for the majors, little effort is taken to ensure that they are offered the facilities that would help them do so.
But they had one shock after another. The first big jolt came when the AFI advanced the dates of two prominent National meets, the Federation Cup and Inter-State Nationals — qualifying events for the Asian Championships and the Asian Games — by a month.
With the organisers of the Asian meet and the Asian Games setting up early deadlines for entries, the AFI was helpless and forced to advance the dates of the qualification meets.
That has upset many athletes’ plans, especially those training abroad. Cancelling flights and rebooking tickets are expensive. Their training plans went haywire.
If that was not enough, when the athletes landed in Ranchi for the Federation Cup, they realised there was no warm-up track.
“For sprinters, everything has to be perfect on a given day. You have to get a good warm-up track to mimic what you will do on the main track,” said Amiya Kumar Mallick, the men’s 100-metre national record-holder, shortly after emerging as the Federation Cup’s fastest man.
Hurtling through hurdles: Jyothi Yarraji (319) of Railways, winning the Women’s 100m Hurdles, during the 61st National Open Athletics Championship 2022, at Sree Kanteerva Stadium, in Bengaluru in 2022. | Photo Credit: MURALI KUMAR K
“Unfortunately, it was unavailable. That was a major problem.”
A prominent coach who did not want to be named said a competition without a warm-up track makes life difficult for athletes. “We need to have a warm-up track, at least 100m straight so that they can warm up. Yes, it’s hard on the athletes. It’s difficult; I understand the challenges,” he said.
Madhu Kant Pathak, the president of the host Jharkhand Athletics Association, explained that the sudden change of dates had left him with very little time to organise the event properly.
“We have another athletics stadium, which hosted the National Games a few years ago, but the track there is not in good condition now. So, we had to have the Federation Cup here (at the Birsa Munda Football Stadium, which also has an athletics track), and we did not get much time either,” he said.
No national records were set at the event; there were a few meet records and plenty of interesting duels. The men’s javelin throw, where Rohit Yadav upset the in-form D.P. Manu to win the gold, was perhaps the biggest surprise of the championship. Rohit also improved his personal best by nearly a metre to 83.40m.
“I was looking at 85m,” said Rohit, who had a great day with his first three throws all over 83m, better than his previous best of 82.54m last year. And Sachin Yadav, who finished third, improved his personal best by six metres, and he entered the 80m club.
Jyothi Yarraji, who set a series of national records in the sprint hurdles last year, is now proving to be a fast climber in the 200m, too. She improved her personal best twice, bringing it from 23.60 to 23.42s as she jolted seasoned sprinter Archana Suseendran to take the gold. She had taken the 100m hurdles title with a meet record. K.M. Chanda, the National Games women’s 800m champion in 2:01.58s, broke Tintu Luka’s meet record in the event, clocking 2:01.79s.
With national record-holder Praveen Chithravel (his 17.37m record jump is awaiting ratification) training and competing abroad and Commonwealth Games champion Eldhose Paul down with a heel injury, the men’s triple jump lost much of its sheen.
“They will both be back for the Inter-State Championship (in Bhubaneswar from June 15), then these jumps will change,” said Abdulla Aboobacker, the Commonwealth Games silver medallist, who took the gold in Ranchi with 16.76m.
The quartermile event had some surprises and drama. Tamil Nadu’s Rajesh Ramesh was involved in a close race with Kerala’s Muhammed Ajmal, and both went sub-46s for the first time, with the former emerging champion in 45.75s.
Aishwarya Mishra had it easy in the women’s 400m, finishing in 52.57s, the fastest time by an Indian woman this year, but her joy was short-lived. Karnataka’s Priya Mohan, who finished second, filed a protest soon after the race, claiming that the Maharashtra girl had cut her lane while handling a corner. An hour later, Aishwarya was disqualified for lane infringement, and Priya was declared the winner.
There were no surprises as Asian record holder Tajinderpal Singh Toor won the men’s shot put with 20.42m, while women’s javelin national record holder, Annu Rani, now training in Germany under Werner Daniels, who has tinkered with her technique, opened her season with 59.24m. Gulveer Singh of Uttar Pradesh picked up a double by winning the men’s 5,000 and 10,000m and meeting the AFI’s qualification standard in both events. Also qualifying was Jinson Johnson in the 1500m, where he is the Asian Games champion, having won the title in Jakarta in 2018.
Expect more drama and surprises at the Inter-State Nationals in Bhubaneswar in June.
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