Asian Athletics Championships preview (part-2)

The Indian chances

 What are India’s chances in these championships? How well have they prepared? Let us take a look at the prominent athletes who should be figuring in India’s medal hunt in Wuhan.

(Action begins on June 3, Wednesday at 6.30 a.m. IST)

Men

Track events:  With a repeat of his 20.87s in the 200m, Dharambir Singh might have a chance to look for a medal. Indian sprinters rarely reproduce their home form in big meets abroad and thus the doubt whether the 24-year-old Haryana man can come up with his best. He was charged with an ‘evasion’ from dope testers in the Inter-State in Hyderabad in 2012 but was reprieved later.

Two-lapper Jinson Johnson, steeplechasers Jaiveer Singh and Naveen Kumar are other Indians who could be capable of getting among the minor medals on track.

There is always talk of relay teams getting medals but a lot of factors eventually decide how it goes. Japan, which holds the top three times in Asia in the current sprint relay lists has not even been entered in this event!

Jumps:

Two Indian long jumpers, Kumaravel Premkumar and Ankit Sharma have crossed 8.00m this year. Eight other Asians including five Chinese have also achieved that distinction. Li Jinzhe and the No. 2 in the list, another Chinese, Wang Jianan, who set an Asian junior record in Shanghai in May are not in the fray. The Indians do have medal chances if they jump at their best.

Premkumar, who has been training in the US, had taken the silver at home last time, while Sharma’s selection got into quite a bit of controversy after the federation omitted him despite his success in the selection meet.

Throws:

This is where India is hoping to strike rich. With two leaders in Asia in discus and shot put, naturally the Indian camp is looking forward to gold medal performances though, surprisingly,  Vikas Gowda was not mentioned as a gold medal contender among the Indians when the team left.

Gowda should be a hot bet to defend his gold medal in discus, earned in the absence of Asian record holder Ehsan Hadadi of Iran in Pune. Gowda is in the best form of his life, having notched up eight of the top 10 Asian marks this season in the run-up to the Wuhan championships with a best of 65.75m.

Recently, the 31-year-old Mysorean finished third at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, ahead of Hadadi  for only the second time in 19 meetings. The Iranian has been a late starter this season and is capable of pulling off a big one as he did in the last Asian Games.

Gowda should also be looking to nail the Olympic qualification mark of 66.0m. So too Hadadi and a few others.

The performance of Arjun, India’s second entry who did not meet the standard but was chosen obviously with an eye on the future would be keenly followed.  The Delhi boy had won the silver in the Youth Olympics in 2010, but had not been in the news much till he claimed the silver in the National Games this year and won the title in the Federation Cup with a PB of 58.51m.

Inderjeet in great form

Inderjeet Singh crossing 20 metres in shot put thrice this year has stirred the imagination of the athletics buffs in the country. His 20.65 in the Fed Cup by which he made the Olympic cut has helped him gain international recognition. He crossed 20 metres during the trials for the World University Games also after the Fed Cup, having first breached the barrier in the National Games in Thiruvananthapuram.

Inderjeet will have to contend with Chinese Taipei’s Chang Ming-Huang and the three Chinese, Wang Guangfu, Liu Yang and Tian Zizhong, the first two having PBs of plus-20 metres.  If the Indian can come close to what he has achieved at home he will probably walk away with the gold. Below 20.0m there would be a scramble for medals.

Davinder inconsistent

Javelin thrower Davinder Singh has been inconsistent. Chosen for the last Commonwealth Games, he disappointed with a 70.56m in the qualification round in Glasgow. He was back at his best in the Fed Cup this year with a PB of 79.65 that fetched him a berth in the Indian team again.

The No 1 javelin thrower this season, India’s Rajender Singh Dalvir (82.23m for National record in National Games) could not find a place in the Indian team since he fared poorly in the Fed Cup. Below him there are two Chinese Taipei throwers, Cheng Chao-Tsun and Huang Shih-Feng, both having crossed 81 metres.  Both are at Wuhan.

Davinder has his task cut out since the field will also be having Japanese Yukifumi Murakami, former Asian Games champion and World championship bronze medallist, apart from Uzbek Ivan Zaytsev , the defending champion, who was also the bronze medallist in the last Asian Games. Davinder would have redeemed himself if he can win a medal in such company.

Women:

Track events:

M. R. Povamma (PB 51.73s, SB 53.41s) has been projected as a major gold medal contender for India on the track. The Karnataka one-lap runner is not in the best of form though her 53.41s in Mangaluru could be attributed to her rustiness in a season-opener. She had skipped the National Games to concentrate on her training.
The late withdrawal of Bahraini of Nigerian origin, Femi Adekoya, who won the 400m and 400m hurdles at the last Asian Games, has left Poovamma, bronze medallist at Incheon Asiad, with a better chance than she would have had otherwise.

Asami Chiba of Japan, who won the silver in the 2010 Asian Games, Anastasiya Kudinova and Yulia Rakhmanova of Kazakhstan, Yang Huizhen of China and Sri Lankan Chandrika Subhashini who beat Poovamma in the Glasgow CWG could be the other contenders in the women’s 400m, scheduled to have the preliminaries on the opening day.

Best chance for Luka to become champion

Though she has not been rated too high in the Indian team’s calculations, this could be the best chance for Tintu Luka to win the Asian title. Missing from the 800 field would be Asian Games champion Margarita Mukasheva of Kazakhstan and defending champion Chinese Wang Chunyu. 
Her finishing ability still in doubt, Luka can yet produce a winning race at this level, especially in the absence of Mukasheva, by running in front. She clocked 2:01.86 while winning the National Games title in February this year but was sluggish at the finish in the Fed Cup. She should start the favourite in Wuhan. Chinese Zhao Jing, who finished behind Luka in Incheon last year, is in the fray and could be expected to pose stiff challenge before the home crowd.

Until she develops a finishing ‘kick’ from 150m out, or can shift to an extra gear on the straight, Luka would be better off, at least for the time being, to lead from the front, no matter that her struggle invariably through the last 100 metres often gives the impression that she was "setting the pace” for others to be beaten at the finish.

Lalita Babar skipped Fed Cup but was included in the team for the 3000m steeplechase on her past reputation. Ruth Chebet, the Bahraini of Kenyan origin, and China’s Li Zhenzhu who finished ahead of Babar in the 2014 Asian Games will be there in Wuhan to vie for the medals. Babar may have to yet settle for a minor medal.

Relay chances

The women’s 4x400m team is without the ‘Olympic hopefuls’ comprising the dope-tainted athletes plus some others. They had the freedom to skip the Federation Cup and still get selected to the Government’s ambitious TOP Scheme for Olympic medal hopes.

The rest would be led by Poovamma and will have Luka to lend more experience. P. T. Usha’s other trainee Jisna Mathew, who took the silver in the inaugural Asian Youth championships in the 400m, in a national junior record of 53.84s, and possibly hurdler Anu Raghavan may complete the line-up.

In a second trial at Patiala, the team minus Luka and Mathew, clocked 3:35 plus to earn selection. They will need to do a lot better than that to ward off Japan (3:32.79 this season), China and Kazakhstan in Wuhan and retain India’s hold on the event.

Jumps:

After a disappointing year in 2014, Mayookha Johny is back. Though yet to regain her form, the Kerala woman, who won the Asian title in 2011 in Kobe, Japan, can look at least for a medal in the company of a clutch of Chinese and Filipino veteran Marestella Torres who looks to be in good form this season with a best of 6.53m. Chinese Zhou Xiaoxue leads with 6.55m. Mayooka did 6.34m in the Fed Cup to clinch her place in the team.

Throws:

Navjeet Kaur Dhillon, just out of the junior ranks, might find it extremely difficult to break the Chinese monopoly in discus. With three of them allowed in the field, as a host nation’s privilege, China looks set to sweep the medals. Su Xinyue with 64.27m leads the current Asian lists. Tan Jian and Lu Xiaoxin, the other two Chinese, both are 61-metre-plus throwers. Dhillon’s best this season is 52.70. She has a PB of 56.36m. The experience should help Dhillon who is being groomed for the future. Both Seema Antil, the 2014 Asian Games champion, and Krishna Poonia, the national record holder, were not available for competitions at the beginning of this season.

Asian Games bronze medallist in javelin, Annu Rani was given a second trial before she qualified for the Asian championships. Her trial effort of 58.66m may project her as a medal contender, though a minor one. Suman Devi, who won the Fed Cup with 54.07m is the second Indian entry. The top two Chinese have gone beyond 61 metres this season.

-(updated 03 June, 2015)