The Olympic qualification race (Part III)

Field events look more promising for Indians

Seven Indians had made it to London last time in field events_Renjith Maheswary (triple jump), Om Prakash Singh (shot put) and Vikas Gowda (discus) among men and Sahana Kumari (high jump), Mayookha Johny (triple jump) and Krishna Poonia and Seema Antil (discus) among women.

This time too the field events look more promising for more qualifiers to emerge, in horizontal jumps in particular. The standards in men’s high jump (2.29m) and pole vault (5.70m) are well beyond the present Indian crop.  The same holds true in women’s high jump (1.93m) and pole vault (4.50m).

In men’s long jump, both Kumaravel Premkumar and Ankit Sharma had 8.04m last year. Premkumar  who took the South Asian Games title at 7.62m also won the silver at the Asian Indoor Championships with an encouraging 7.92m, an indoor National record. He has six marks of eight metres or better with the National record of 8.09m having come in 2013.

The long jump standard of 8.15m may still look out of reach for the Indians but both Premkumar and Sharma are reportedly gearing up for the challenge ahead. One cannot rule out anything at this point.

One would have expected both Renjith Maheswary and Arpinder Singh to have qualified for Rio in triple jump by now. Both are waiting, however. The standard is 16.85m. Renjith came up to 16.45m in the South Asian Games at Guwahati. The last he crossed 16.85m was in 2013 in Chennai when he did 16.98m in the Inter-State meet.

Arpinder ‘s best and National record of 17.17m (12th best in the world that year) came at Lucknow in 2014. His second best is 16.84m in 2013. In 2015 he could touch only 16.41m for the silver in the National Games. This year he has jumped 15.80m indoors, during his training stint abroad. It would be hard for him to make the cut.

Mayookha shows encouraging form

In women’s horizontal jumps, Mayookha has started to make some sort of a comeback.  Her 6.43m at the SAG is still well short of the standard of 6.70m but her 14.00m in triple jump in the Asian Indoors is just 15cm shy. She had missed making the London Games trip narrowly in long jump but made it in triple jump where she failed to progress to the final and finished 22nd eventually. Her National record of 14.11m at the Asian Championships in Kobe in 2011 had held her surpass the ‘B’ standard then. Since 2011 when she also had a 14.02 in Wujiang, China, this is the first time the Kerala woman has touched 14m.

In women’s discus, India’s forte for several years, Krishna Poonia who finished seventh in London has not competed since 2014. Her best year happened to be 2012 when she set the national record of 64.76m (Seema Antil’s 64.84 in Kiev in 2004 is not recognized by the AFI but is listed as national record by the IAAF). That was the last time she crossed 60 metres. Having undergone a surgery and having been engaged in mainstream politics Poonia’s comeback to topflight athletics looks uncertain.

Seema Antil has once again moved to the US for training as she did in 2012 towards her Olympic qualification and preparation. She did reasonably well that year with a best of 62.60m and a 13th place finish in the Olympics (later upgraded to 12th because of the doping disqualification of Russian Darya Pishchalnikova who had originally finished second). Her best since has been the 61.61m in Glasgow for the CWG silver. She can still hope to reach 61.00m needed to make it to Rio though her top three marks of 63-metre-plus came 12 years ago.

Chopra goes past 80 metres

In javelin, 18-year-old Neeraj Chopra has registered some sensational marks last year as well as this year. He is now the joint National record holder with Rajender Singh Dalvir at 82.23m. The Olympic standard of 83.00m looks within reach for Chopra if not for Dalvir who has been recouping from an injury.  If the optimism expressed by the Australian coach Garry Calvert is any indication the young man from Chandigarh looks destined to scale greater heights.

The task in women’s javelin for Annu Rani and Suman Devi looks far tougher than that for the men. The standard of 62.0m is stiff when compared to the National record of 59.53m in the name of Annu Rani. Suman Devi has also crossed 59 metres this year.

There is an abundance of talent to pick from among the racewalkers.  Four additional walkers among men have made it in the 20km event from the National racewalking championships. They include 2012 Olympic 10th-place finisher K. T. Irfan who has come back from injuries.  Others are K. Ganapathi, Devender Singh and Neeraj. As pointed out earlier one will have to verify the status of the National championships as a qualifying competition for Rio before being certain about additional qualifiers. In any case only three can make it to Rio in each event.

Earlier three had made it in 20km, Gurmeet Singh, Baljinder Singh and Chandan Singh, and two had clinched in both 20km and 50km, Sandeep Kumar and Manish Rawat. Among women, National record holder Khushbir Kaur and Sapna had already made the grade in 20km. There were no fresh claimants for a place in the team from the National meet.

(Concluded)

The Olympic qualification race (Part II)

Olympic standards v National records

Where do Indian athletes stand in the Olympic qualification race?

In 22 of the 43 events (excluding four relays) that would be featured in the Rio track and field programme, the Olympic standards are tougher than the Indian National records today.  We are not counting those events in which national records were bettered in the process of achieving the standards, for example women’s shot put .

The 22 events with national marks in parenthesis: Men: 100m-10.16s (10.30s), 200m-20.50s (20.66s), 400m-45.40s (45.48s), 1500m-3:36.20 (3:38.00), 5000m-13:25.00 (13:29.70), 10,000m-28:00.00 (28:02.89), 3000m steeplechase-8:30.00 (8:30.88), 110m hurdles- 13.47s (13.65s), 400m hurdles-49.40s (49.51s), High jump-2.29m (2.25m), pole vault-5.70m (5.13m), long jump-8.15m (8.09m), hammer-77.00m (72.86m*), javelin -83m (82.23m), Decathlon 8100 pts (7658).

Women: 100m-11.32s (11.38s), 100m hurdles-13.00s (13.38s), high jump-1.93m (1.92m), pole vailt-4.50m (4.15m), triple jump-14.15m (14.11m), hammer-71.00m (62.74m), javelin -62m (59.53m).

Qualified in 10 events

Of the 21 events left Indian athletes have already qualified in 10 of them, men’s marathon (Nitendra Singh Rawat, Kheta Ram and T. Gopi),  shot put (Inderjeet Singh), discus (Vikas Gowda), 20km walk (Gurmeet Singh, Chandan Singh and Baljinder Singh), 50km walk (Sandeep Kumar and Manish Rawat) and women’s 800m (Tintu Luka), marathon (O. P. Jaisha, Sudha Singh and Kavita Raut), 3000m steeplechase (Lalita Babar), Manpreet Kaur (shot put) and Khushbir Kaur and Sapna (20km walk).

The 11 other events are: Men’s 800m and triple jump; women’s 200m, 400m, 1500m, 5000m, 10,000m, 400m hurdles, long jump, discus throw and heptathlon.  These are events in which the Olympic standards are lower than our National records and yet some of them would be too stiff to even think of attaining.

Take for example the men’s 800 metres. Sriram Singh’s fabled record set in the Montreal Olympics in 1976, that of 1:45.77, has stood the test of time. It looks set to last for many more years. The next best to the Rajasthan and Army athlete’s national record is 1:46.26 by Pankaj Dimri at Patiala in 2010. Dimri’s best after that happens to be 1:49.38 in 2012. The Olympic qualification standard stands at 1:46.00. Jinson Johnson, India’s best two-lapper last year who took the Asian championships silver, has a PB of 1:47.58.

Looking at the 22 events where the national records would not be enough to crack the Olympic standard, as in the past, we can look at the field events with more hope than the track events. And within track events we can look at distance events with a little more optimism than the sprints. Not in terms of the prospects of those who have already clinched a berth but towards qualification alone. The qualified athletes’ chances could be analyzed at a later date.

In men’s sprints, Dharambir Singh’s national record of 20.66s for the 200m and Arokia Rajiv’s PB of 45.57s for the 400m, both clocked last year, may look encouraging when viewed against the standards of 20.50s and 45.40s. They are in no way easy to achieve and it would take Herculean efforts from both these athletes if they were to nail these marks.

The men’s 100m standard of 10.16s should settle all debates even before someone starts talking about the chance of an Indian athlete making it. The Indian record stands at 10.30s. For comparison purposes we can recall the feat of American Jim Hines in 1968 when he became the first man to break the 10-second barrier with a time of 9.95s to win the Olympic title in Mexico City.

Turning our attention towards women sprinters we find both Dutee Chand and Srabani Nanda, the Odisha athletes, are chasing the 200m norm of 23.20s. Dutee is yet to proceed on a foreign training mission that she wants to undertake desperately even as she has expressed doubts about the recent IOC Consensus statement on sex reassignment and hyperandrogenism.

IOC, IAAF not to block Dutee

This correspondent was told by the IOC recently that not only was Dutee eligible for Rio but the IOC had no plans to bring in its own hyperandrogenism rules like it had for the 2012 Olympics. It wanted the issues raised by Dutee’s appeal to the CAS and the latter’s stay on the IAAF hyperandrogenism regulations to be resolved before it thought about its own fresh rules. It, however, asked the IAAF to pursue the case in CAS.

The IAAF, according to a report in the Toronto Star, was not thinking in terms of going back to CAS within the time available before Rio.

That should leave Dutee in some comfort in her efforts to target the 23.20s for the 200m, presuming that the 11.32s standard for the 100m looks beyond the reach of any of the Indian sprinters right now. The National record in 100m is 11.38s.

Dutee has a best of 23.57s in the 200m clocked in the Asian junior championships in 2014. Srabani Nanda has 23.54s clocked while winning the bronze in the Asian championships in Wuhan last year. Only Saraswati Saha (22.82 NR in 2002), Vinita Tripathi (23.04s in 2000) and Rachita Mistry (23.10s in 2000) have clocked better than 23.20s in the history of Indian athletics.

A relatively easier task awaits M. R. Poovamma in the 400m where the standard is 52.20s. Poovamma has a best of 51.73 clocked in 2014. The Karnataka woman had a 52.60s in one of the Asian GPs last year while she won the South Asian Games title in a hand-timed 54.1.

Jisna in fray for Olympic norm

One more athlete from among the big batch of probable relay runners is sure to aim for Olympic qualification in the individual 400. The 17-year-old Jisna Mathew had a PB of 53.14s clocked while taking the Commonwealth Youth Games silver last year.  Coach P. T. Usha feels her ward has the potential to go for the Olympic standard.

O. P. Jaisha’s PB of 15:18.30 for the 5000m in Incheon Asian Games (standard 15:24.00) gives her the confidence that she would be able to make it in this event, too, apart from the marathon for which she has qualified but which she is not keen on running. A final decision has to be taken in consultation with coach Nikolai Snesarev who is reportedly in favour of Jaisha running the marathon. A place in the final in the 5000m is a possibility for Jaisha. But will it be greatly different from a top-20 finish in marathon? 
Suriya Loganathan (PB of 15:45.75 at South Asian Games in Guwahati) could be expected to work hard towards qualification.

In men’s 5000m and 10,000m the standards of 13:25.00 and 28:00.00 look beyond the reach of Indian distance runners. Both are better than the existing National records in the names of Bahadur Prasad (13:29.70 in 1992) and Surender Singh (28:02.89 in 2008).

With Kheta Ram and T. Gopi having made the marathon grade and not likely to go for qualification on the track, only Suresh Kumar Patel, from among those regulars in distance events, can be considered as one athlete who could be aiming for the standard in 10,000m. He has PBs of 13:42.28 and 28:58.22 for the two distance events.

The hurdles look tough for both men and women. The 110m hurdles standard of 13.47s looks intimidating in front of the National record of 13.65s in the name of Siddhanth Thingalaya. It was in chasing the 2012 ‘B’ standard of 13.60s that Thingalaya got injured in Brussels. Since then he has not been able to strike top form though he did equal his National record at Patiala in 2014.

Early 2016 season suggests Thingalaya is at least making a serious attempt to get back into top gear for the outdoor season. In two successive meets in the US, at Seattle and at Flagstaff, Arizona, in January, Thingalaya clocked indoor national records for the 60m hurdles in heats and finals to bring it up to 7.80s.

There is no serious contender to qualify in the 400m hurdles given the fact that the best man last season, Durgesh Kumar Pal timed 50.29 in the Fed Cup, his PB which is way off the standard of 49.40s. Joseph Abraham’s National record stands at 49.51s.

Among women there was some talk of Ashwini A. C. or Jauna Murmu going for the 400m hurdles standard of 56.30s. Their performance in the South Asian Games did not suggest they could be serious contenders. Murmu had 57.69s and Ashwini 58.92s. But they are athletes who have come up with most unexpected results in the past and one cannot rule out anything at this stage. P. T. Usha's National record of 55.42s set in the Los Angeles Olympic still stands after nearly 32 years.

No one has come close to Gopal Saini’s National mark of 8:30.88 for the 3000m steeplechase clocked way back in 1981. The Olympic standard happens to be 8:30.00. The best that any of the contenders among the current batch of Indians had timed was 8:36.36 by Jaiveer Singh in 2011. Naveen Kumar  had a best of 8:42.79 last year.  He has a PB of 8:40.39.
(updated 29 Feb 2016)

(Contd in part III)

The Olympic qualification race (Part I)

How tough are the entry standards in athletics for the Rio Olympics? Apart from the 18 athletes who had achieved the standards up to the end of the South Asian Games how many other Indians could reasonably be expected to at least aim for these standards?

Less than six months remain for the Olympics and less than five months for the athletes to achieve the standards.

As had been the pattern in the past, with a large majority of the athletes the target has remained “qualification for the Olympics”. You can’t blame them of course. When the standards themselves are so high as to make most of them beyond the reach of lesser-rated athletes at the international level, qualification alone would look and feel a “great achievement”. The fans are also happy if an athlete whom he or she follows makes the grade. The federation will of course be elated if the numbers get swelled.

No one is interested in looking into whether targets, set at the beginning of a season, or under a long-term development plan, were achieved at the end of a particular year. Camps, camps and more camps are held as though these camps would produce the miracle that Indian athletics is looking for.

Two finalists in 2012

To be fair to the Athletics Federation of India (AFI), the Sports Authority of India (SAI), the athletes and the coaches, it must be admitted that the last Olympics produced one of the best results for Indian athletics in a long time when one considered the two final places for our athletes. Vikas Gowda (8th) and Krishna Poonia (7th) made the discus finals, K. T. Irfan took a gallant 10th place in 20km walk and Tintu Luka made the semifinals in the 800 metres.

Unfortunately, there was hardly any analysis of the performance of the rest of the 14-member squad many of whom fared disappointingly.  Discus thrower Seema Antil was close to making the final, though. That squad contained four walkers plus one male marathoner while this time we already have seven walkers including two women and six marathoners including three women who have made the cut-off.

(At the time of writing four more male walkers had reportedly made the ‘cut’ in 20km event through their performance at the National racewalking championship at Jaipur, but one would wait for confirmation about the status of the event before confirming their qualification. At the time of writing the IAAF had not listed the Indian National championships among the approved walk events in 2016 that would allow qualifiers to be eligible for Olympics. It might have been because of a delay in communication or else there actually was no prior approval. One needs to check this out further.)

That leaves just five others, shot putter Inderjeet Singh and discus thrower Vikas Gowda among men, and Tintu Luka, steeplechaser Lalita Babar and shot putter Manpreet Kaur (Sr.) among women to have obtained the norms for Rio.

Athletics is one sports discipline in the Olympics where they don’t ask you to go through a set of qualifying events or earn quota places or clock standards in pre-designated or pre-approved meets (except road events). In relays teams would be eligible based on their placings in the World Relays (up to top 8) plus rankings based on two best timings for the next eight.

Tougher standards

Otherwise an athlete can achieve a standard in any national or international event where the IAAF rules are in place and competent technical officials are around to make sure that everything is according to rules.

This time, though, the standards have become tougher than before. The IAAF has done away with the practice of ‘A’ and ‘B’ standard. There is just one standard now. It is stiffer than what used to be the ‘B’ standard where a country could field one athlete in an event with ‘A’ standard allowing up to three.

This is why the Indian athletes are seemingly struggling to attain these standards which could have been achieved from May 1 last year and can be achieved up to July 11 this year. For 10,000m, marathon, race walk and combined events the qualification period started from January 1, 2015.

The IAAF has fixed certain target numbers for each event and accordingly fixed the standards. If the slots are not filled athletes could be invited to fill up places according to a ranking list, irrespective of having achieved the standards.

(Contd. Part II)