MADHYA PRADESH : It’s raining medals at the Madhya Pradesh State Athletics Academy.
As many as 12 medals were won by the promising junior and senior athletes of the academy in Bhopal between April 4 and April 11 in the first three stages of the Indian Athletic Series, organised by the Athletics Federation of India (AFI). It aims to provide competitive opportunities, improve infrastructure accessibility across 16+ venues in the country and identify talent for national camps. It also acts as a crucial platform for emerging and elite athletes to compete in track and field events to prepare for major international championships.
It began with three medals, including two gold, at the Series-1 in Bengaluru, where ace senior shot putter Samardeep Singh won the gold with a heave of 19.74 metres. Two junior athletes emulated their senior’s medal winning feat, with Krishna Chandra winning the boys’ javelin with a long throw of 70.68 metres, while fellow javelin thrower Shivani Patel finished third in the girl’s section by throwing to a distance of 43.46 metres.
Just a day later at the Indian Athletics Series-2 in Jaipur, the current national record holder Deeksha won the gold medal in the 1,500 metres women event with a timing of 4:25:74, while Nitika Aakre won the silver medal in the women’s pole vault by successfully clearing 3.80 metres height.
The men’s pole vault in the Jaipur series brought the maximum cheers to the MP camp with first two positions being claimed by athletes from the central Indian state’s athletics academy only. While Kuldeep Kumar won the gold clearing 5.25 metres height, academy mate Dev Meena was a close second.
And the Jaipur success story of the MP Academy’s athletes didn’t end with that only, as Aditya Raghuvanshi won the bronze in men’s high jump clearing a height of 2 metres, while Krishna Yadav finished third in the men’s triple jump by jumping 14.78 metres.
Six days later in the national capital Delhi, the athletes from MP Athletics Academy won more laurels at the India Series-3. One of the three promising middle and long-distance runners from southwestern MP’s Khargone district, Ritesh Ohre won the silver medal in the 1,500 metres, clocking 3.46.12, Preeti Yadav won the silver in the women’s 800 metres in a time of 2:11:97 seconds, while Vinod Singh completed the medal hunt for the central Indian state in the 10,000 metres men’s event, winning the bronze 30:09:62.
Consequently, the athletes from the MP Athletics Academy, who hail from not just MP but also from adjoining Uttar Pradesh (maximum 20% athletes at the Academy are from outside MP) won a rich haul of 12 medals, including four golds, four silvers and four bronze medals in the first three meets forming the year-long India Athletics Series to be held across 16-plus venues in the country.
“The last one week (April 7-April 11) has ushered us the maximum number of national medals to our talented junior and senior athletes within just seven days and also serves as major competitive ground for making it to the Indian team for the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games at the senior-level and Asian and World Championships at the junior level,” said Academy’s chief coach Shiv Kumar Prasad.
Prasad along with his trusted team of coaches, including shot put coach Sandeep Singh, javelin coach Mohd Hadis (Hadeesh Pathan), sprint coach Shipra Masih, jump coach Amit Gauatm and middle & long-distance running coach Sandeep Bains are now working with the senior and junior athletes for the Senior Federation Cup Championships in May and Inter-State Championships (qualifying events to make in the Indian Team for the Nagoya-Japan Asian Games) and the Junior Federation Cup Championship which will be the qualifying event for making to the Asian Junior and World Junior Championships.
While 1,500 metres women’s runner Deeksha (who set the new national record 4:04:78 at Los Angeles in 2024) and promising shot putter Samardeep Singh are the hottest contenders for making it to the Indian team for the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games, the middle-and long-distance runner trio of Ritesh Ohre, Arjun Waskale and Sunil Dabar (all from Khargone district) are hottest prospects in the 1,500 metres men’s event.
The junior segment has even more promising prospects in Krishna Chandra (javelin), Shivani Patel (javelin), Himanshu (100 metres dash), Prashant Kumar and Ranjana Yadav (5 km racewalk), Radha Yadav (1,500 metres), Anshu (3,000 metres women steeplechase) and Lajo Saroj (5,000 metres women).