CHENNAI: THE aim is 2028 Olympics and that road would traverse through some important continental and world championships peppered in between. With this in mind, India will begin their Asian Athletics Championships in Gumi from Tuesday. Though multiple Olympic and world medallist Neeraj Chopra will miss the event, there are quite a few stars experienced and young who would want to rise and shine.
Former Athletics Federation of India president Adille Sumariwalla, who is with the contingent, said that the event is important as a stepping stone for the athletes who are preparing for the world championships. Apart from that he said that “we have fielded quite a few junior athletes and this will be a very good experience for them”. He said it is a good stepping stone because the season is just starting.
“We already know the athletes who would be qualifying for the World Championships and once they start showing some performance here then we are planning to send them for training and competition in Europe,” said Sumariwalla, who is now the AFI spokesperson. “They will compete in their circuit and in Diamond Leagues as well if they get entries. So it’s a step by step approach.”
For India, this time the long distance runners show more promise. Steeplechase exponent and national record holder Avinash Sable, Parul Chaudhary (steeplechase and 5000m), national record holder in 5000m and 10000m Gulveer Singh, who will be in action on Tuesday in the latter, are a few who are expected to do well. Sable won gold at the Asian Games (2023) in Hangzhou while Parul is the defending Asian meet champion. Gulveer had won bronze in the last edition in Bangkok.
However, the focus once again would be in the 400m. Rupal Chaudhary and Vithya Ramraj would begin their heats in their respective groups on Tuesday. They have the two best timings of the season among all the participants. In 400m men, there are two entries – 22-year-old TK Vishal with a personal best of 46.19s and 18-year-old (46.29s). Tejaswin Shankar who won a silver in decathlon at the Asian Games would look to finish at the same spot in his new discipline. His event starts Tuesday. For triple jumper Abdulla Aboobacker (last edition gold medallist) and Praveen Chithravel it could be business as usual when they begin their event on Wednesday. Javelin thrower Annu Rani too will take the field in the final on Tuesday.
Speaking about 400m athletes, Sumariwalla said that there were cycles when India had been dominating in the 400m. “It’s all in cycles,” he said. “There will be a good set of athletes who will come and dominate and then another set will come. For example in 2004 (Asian meet) three girls qualified for the final. One need not get too disturbed by the cycles. We have a good set of long distance runners and Scott (Simmons; foreign coach) is here in Gumi. He did a good job with the long distance runners. We have had some misfortunes with the 400m but by world championships we will be building a very strong team. The 400m runners are all young and they are doing 3.02:00s and 3.02:00s (men’s). Only at the world championships last time they clocked 2.59.05s (Asian record set by Muhammed Anas, Amoj Jacob, Muhammed Ajmal and Rajesh Ramesh) but they always ran 3.01 or 3.01. These boys are 20-year-olds and they are 3.02 and 3.03. We will run below three minutes by the time world championships come.”
The AFI selection committee chairman said that he has urged all the athletes to enjoy and perform personal best during the Asian meet. He told them during the team meeting to push themselves hard as much as they can. As of now the Asian meet begins