Ace sprinter Hima Das (Photo | PTI)
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Indian sprinters, including the likes of Hima Das, will take center stage for the first time this season in the Indian Grand Prix 1 Athletics Meet at the Chandrasekharan Nair Police Stadium here on Sunday.
Amoj Jacob, Noah Nirmal Tom and Arokia Rajiv, who were part of the Indian 4x400m team that set the Asian record in the Tokyo Olympics in August last year, besides Amlan Borgogain and Nalubothu Srinivas will also be in action in the one-day meet.
While Jacob and Nirmal Tom will headline the 400m race, others will battle it out in the 200m sprint.
Similarly, Hima, S Dhanalakshmi and AT Daneshwari will make the women's 200m an event to watch while Priya Mohan, MR Poovamma and Dandi Jyothika can make for very competitive 400m contest at the start of the season.
All the competitors will try to showcase early form in the season that will see major competitions like the World Championships, Commonwealth Games and Asian Games.
National record holder long jumper M Sreeshankar will also seek consistency in form before heading to Belgrade for the World Athletics Indoor Championships next week.
He had touched a distance 8.17m in the National Open Jumps Competition at the same venue here.
Sreeshankar will be pushed by the likes of Mohammad Anees Yahiya, who was second in the National Open Jumps by only 2cm, Yugant Shekhar Singh and Eldhose Paul and Praveen Chitravel.
The other men's event that can see tight competition would be the javelin throw where Rohjt Yadav and Sahil Silwal will vie for honours.
The women's long jump pit may see another keen battle featuring Ancy Sojan, Nayana James and Pooja Saini while Abha Khatua and Manpreet Kaur will resume their tussle for supremacy in the women's shot put event.
Ajay Kumar Saroj (men's 1500m), Abhishek Pal (Men's 5000m), Karanveer Singh (men's shot put), Lili Das (women's 1500m) and Sharmila Kumari (women's javelin throw) will have to deal with the pressure of going into their events as favourites.
Kavita Yadav and Chatru Gumnaram will have to draw strength from one another in the women's 5000m to produce a good time.
A total of 90 athletes, including 30 women, will compete in 14 events.
