The never-ending athletics trials

Indian athletics history from the 1980s will show that normally additional trials are arranged to pick the relay squads just before departure.  Sometimes the trials are held even at the venue of the Games!

Twice, at least in one’s memory, trials were held at the venue of the Asian Games to determine who would be the ‘first choice four in the women's 4x400m team, in Seoul in 1986 and in Busan in 2002.

This time, as the team gets ready for the Incheon Asian Games_well, Korea again, the coaches may please note,  if one more trial has to be gone through in a Games venue!_ yet another trial has been planned, hopefully the last time for these Games.

On Thursday, September 18, 2014, the men’s 4x400m relay team will be given another chance to make the ‘cut’ for Incheon. Also in the fray would be woman long jumper Mayookha Johny and triple jumper Renjith Maheswary.

Men's 4x400 team disappoints

The men's relay team clocked a disappointing 3,08.62 as against the standard of 3,06.49, though it must be admitted the team was without the services of one of the leading quarter-milers, Arokia Rajiv, who in fact has been the No. 1 for more than a season now, notwithstanding the loss to Kunhumohammed at Patiala.  Rajiv was supposed to be nursing a minor injury. By the way, the announcement by SAI that fitness tests were being conducted on injured athletes and in future such tests would be must should be welcomed. But what kind of tests are being carried out? Is it just a matter of producing a medical certificate stating that you are fit, which seems to be the case?
Back to relay trials, an Olympian compared that timing of the men's 4x400 quartet with those achieved by the Indian teams in the 1960s.

Renjith was supposed to attempt the norm of 16.56m at the Continental Cup at Marrakech, Morocco. But he ended up last there with an unbelievable 15.91m. As a junior in 2004 he had crossed 16 metres.

Renjith shows slump in form

This season Renjith had produced efforts of 16.43 (Fed Cup) and 16.54 (Inter-State). These were not really befitting his stature or his record (17.07) that was bettered only this year by the rising star from Punjab, Arpinder Singh. The latter posted a sensational 17.17 to upset Renjith as well as take the Inter-State title and book his place in the Commonwealth Games team. At Glasgow, Arpinder was not that spectacular, reaching only 16.63 for the bronze.

The AFI has high hopes on Arpinder for the Asian Games.

Mayookha has been struggling since recording a 6.56 in the Inter-State long jump competition that earned her a place in the team to Glasgow. There she did a shocking 6.11 in qualification. Back home she did more shockingly, a 6.08 at Patiala.

Switch to triple jump

Given another chance to perform along with Renjith and shot putter Om Prakash Singh, Mayookha opted rather unexpectedly for triple jump and came up with 13.18 at Patiala on September 15. She was still short of the qualification guideline that the AFI had set, that of 13.39. There are more than a dozen other Asians, apart from the Indians, who have crossed 13.39 this season.

Mayookha and M. A. Prajusha have been selected for both long jump and triple jump.

Now, the question is what are these athletes going to show differently in a matter of just days? Even if they achieve the ‘so-called’ guidelines or standards or qualification marks, will there be any credibility in those efforts?

How long will the AFI keep giving chances to athletes to achieve norms that might not have been achieved in certain other cases that are ‘confirmed entries’ for the Games ?

Is there a bias?

The argument, it seems, is in favour of giving a last chance to “experienced athletes”. Since the Government has cleared the whole squad of 56 athletes named by the AFI, including Renjith, Om Prakash and Mayookha, there is no worry for the federation to show results. It wants to ascertain the form on its own, though there is a clear tilt towards a select batch of athletes.

Questions have been asked in the media why, for example, Tamil Nadu’s long jumpers Kumaravel Premkumar and M. Vigneswar (7.90m in Inter-State) cannot be given similar chance like that is being given to a few others.

Premkumar’s drastic slide in form has been mysterious. He complained of having recovered from chicken pox during the Inter-State in June, while doing a seven-metre jump in the qualification round that was not sufficient to get him into the final.

Back in action at Patiala during the Fed Cup, Premkumar topped the qualifiers into the final with a jump of 7.42 metres. And then the most unexpected happened. In the final the Tamil Nadu athlete who holds the National record at 8.09m, managed just 6.82m to finish last.

Indian athletics comes up with such surprises quite often and when one such happens during an Asian Games, in reverse order, you might just savor the sight of a medal!

Could the selectors have been faulted for not considering Premkumar?  ‘No’ will have to be the answer. The long jump standard stands at 7.63m. The selectors ignored Vigneshwar’s Lucknow effort of 7.90m and instead only looked at his Patiala performance of 7.39m. They could not have been faulted for not going by a solitary 7.90 performance.

Case of javelin throwers

Then there are the cases of javelin throwers Davinder Singh and Rohit Kumar. Davinder, who could not qualify for the final of the Commonwealth Games, touched 78.57 at the Fed Cup, good enough to beat the norm of 76.50, but not good enough to get the vote from the selectors.

Rohit Kumar, coming back from a doping suspension, had 76.61m. He too found himself out of favour as the selectors picked the gold medallist, Rajender Singh Dalvir who had a 79.32m.

Selection Committee Chairman Gurbachan Singh Randhawa was quoted in a report as saying that he found little chance for Renjith to make the team. The Olympian hurdler also felt that it would be tough for shot putter Om Prakash to come back after having sprained an ankle prior to the re-trials.

Om Prakash also has shown stagnation around the 19-metre mark this season, except for a reported throw of 19.74m in the US in June.

Randhawa feels that selection has to be based on merit and performance and not on reputation and past record. He is not in favour of any more trials.

But the AFI seems to have made up its mind. For those familiar with this scenario there is nothing surprising.

Criteria diluted

The Sports Authority of India (SAI), busy pruning an unwieldy Indian contingent for the Games, and the ministry have had very little time to devote to the athletics squad, it would seem.

Not all the selected athletes have attained the ‘sixth-place standard’ prescribed by the Government, especially in distance events in both sections.  The argument in favour of diluting the standards at least in the women’s distance events could be that these events quite often provide very little opposition and a medal can come about without really showing top form.

Last time, prior to Glasgow Games, Renjith had pulled out of a possible re-trial stating that he had had enough. If he competes this time will he pull it off?

Post-script 

Renjith Maheswary and Mayookha Johny made the grade in triple jump at the re-trials at Patiala today (Sept 18, 2014). Not unexpectedly, one would say. Renjith jumped 16.61m as against the selection guideline of 16.56 while Mayookha did 13.56m as against the standard of 13.39m.

The 4x400 quartet of Kunhumohammed, Arun K. J., Jibin Sebastian and Arokia Rajiv timed 3,07.05 in the re-trials, coming closer to the standard of 3,06.49. A different combination had timed 3,08.62 last Monday.

The AFI issued a release on Thursday night to state that Renjith and Mayookha were cleared for participation in the Asian Games following the re-trials while it had decided to drop the men's 4x400 relay team. Kunhumohammed and Arokia Rajiv, the two entries in the men's 400m would be allowed to proceed.
-last update at 8.00 p.m Sept 18, 2014