Representative pic_Courtesy-G. Rajaraman |
When athletics was set to begin last time at the
Incheon Asian Games, India had won just one gold, through shooter Jitu Rai.
Though athletics produced only two gold in a total gold tally of 11, the sport,
as in the past, contributed the maximum to India’s final medals tally: Two
gold, four silver and seven bronze for a total of 13.
How many can Indian athletes win this time? By Aug 24
evening, on the eve of athletics action, the Indian medals tally in the 2018
Games stood at six gold, five silver and 14 bronze. India was at eighth place
in the medals table with a total of 25 medals.
Obviously, fans and the media were assessing how many
more gold medals India can have from these Games in the second half. Despite
its contingent size in the past, not to speak of talent pool and Government
support, India had not been able to convincingly show its sports prowess at the
continental level, often finishing behind countries like Kazakhstan and Iran,
among others, leading to criticism that not enough was being done to promote
Olympic sports in the country.
This time, though, there has been a concerted effort
to put up an improved show compared to Incheon in 2014. Though there were
selection controversies and quite a few disappointments so far, there has been
some top-class performances, too.
Can the track and field athletes match them? Or can
they better what had been achieved by their predecessors?
18-20 medals expected
There had been no official forecasts by the Athletics
Federation of India (AFI) or the Sports Authority of India (SAI) regarding
medal chances but officials have been optimistic about India getting around 18
to 20 medals from track and field. This can go horribly wrong if things don't turn out true to expectations. Many of us will recall what went wrong in Sydney Olympics 18 years ago or, closer to the present, the Rio Olympics when a solitary athlete (steeplechaser Lalita Babar) made the final.
In internal assessments, officials have listed six
events in which India is expected to have the best chance to win gold medals:
Tejinder Pal Singh Toor in shot put (he competes on the opening day on 25
August), Neeraj Chopra in javelin, Purnima Hembram in heptathlon and the three
4x400m relays including the newly-introduced mixed relay.
Let’s take these events first to analyze before moving
onto others.
Men's shot put:
Tejinder Pal Singh Toor is the Asian
leader since putting 20.24m in the Federation Cup at Patiala on March 6. He
has, however, steadily slumped after that, with 19.42m for eighth place in the
Commonwealth Games, and 19.37m for gold in the inter-State meet at Guwahati,
which served as the final selection trials for the Asian Games.
The No. 2 in Asia this season is Iranian Shahin
Mehrdelan with 19.92m. Once you come to know his best so far had been only
17.42m last year, and he had served a two-year doping suspension in 2014, you
lose some interest in the 23-year-old.
Mehrdelan’s team-mate, Ali Samari, pulled off a
surprise at the Asian championships in Bhubaneswar last year with a personal
best of 19.80m that was enough for the gold. That happened to be his only valid
throw in a competition in which Toor claimed the silver at 19.77m. Samari (SB
18.98m) does not have a record of ‘high’19.00m throws, with 19.42 indoors being
his next best to his Bhubaneswar effort.
Notwithstanding the presence of Asian record (21.13m)
holder Sultan Abdulmajeed Al-Hebshi of Saudi Arabia, Toor should start the favourite
once again as he was in Bhubaneswar. Al-Hebshi, like many shot putters in the
continent including our own Om Prakash Singh, has found it difficult to reach
the 20-metre range in recent years.
If by any chance, Toor finds it difficult to reach even
19 metres, which is possible going by the track record of other Asian leaders,
and India’s own shot putters in the past, the field could be thrown open for
anyone to cash in on. The second man in the Indian team, Naveen Chikara (PB and
SB 19.57m) could not come out of the slump he was in despite getting a retrial
and was left out. He could do only 18-metre-plus throws as against the
qualification standard of 19.50m.
Men’s javelin: For months now, everyone had one name
on their lips to forecast a gold medal for Indian athletics: Neeraj Chopra. Since
reaching a world junior record in the 2016 World-Under-20 championships with a
throw of 86.48m, Chopra has risen in stature in great style. Today he is talked
of by rivals as one youngster capable of joining the 90-metre club sooner than
later. He is among the top six in the world in the Diamond League standings and
has been invited for the finals. He has thrown 85 metres or better five times
this season, with a new personal best and national record of 87.43m at the Doha
Damond League meeting where he stood fourth.
Chopra’s sheer consistency makes him the overwhelming
favourite in Jakarta. Though there is one man who has crossed 90 metres in
Asia, Chinese Taipei’s Cheng Chao-Tsun, the latter does not have the
consistency of the 20-year-old Indian to be rated a serious challenger. He has
a season best of 84.60m.
A more consistent performer has been Qatari Ahmed
Bader Magour. The 22-year-old Egypt-born thrower has a best of 85.23m recorded
last year and has two throws over 83.00m this season with an 83.71m for seventh
at the Doha DL being his season best.
In Liu Qizhen (81.70m) and Ma Qun (82.46m) China has
two capable javelin throwers who could get among the minor medals.
India’s second entry, Shivpal Singh, 23, has not done
anything of note since his PB of 82.28 at Guwhati that earned him
qualification. Singh, who had trained with other Indian javelin throwers in
Finland, could be a medal contender if he is able to come close to that;
otherwise he will join many others ahead of him as ones who produced the odd
82-metre throw and could not sustain his improvement.
Women’s heptathlon: Purnima Hembram has been on a
steady climb this season. Beginning with her PB of 5815 points in the Fed Cup,
the 25-year-old Odisha athlete had improved it to 5834 for seventh in the Commonwealth
Games and added a few more points in reaching 5898 at Guwahati for
qualification to the Asiad.
The 6000-point mark should come soon for Purnima and
the other Indian in the fray, Swapna Barman, the Asian champion, who has come
back from injury this season and has a tally of 5725 in making the grade. Her
best is 5942 at Bhubaneswar last year.
The Asian heptathlon standards have fallen this year.
Only Chinese Wang Qingling, Hembram’s closest challenger, is over 5800 this
season along with the Indian. Last year there were three over 5900 points with
Wang Qingling at a PB of 6033. Japanese Megu Hemphill who finished second in
Bhubaneswar has not made it to Jakarta, probably injured.
The 4x400m relays:
India has won the women’s 4x400m relay gold for the past
three editions of the Games. In the normal course India would have been
considered the odds-on favourite for the gold this time, too. If there is a
possible change in script it is only because of the perch that Bahrain’s
Nigeria-born 400m runner, Salwa Eid Naser, occupies in the year’s lists.
Apart from her, Bahrain, unlike in the past, has also
assembled, it would seem, a strong women’s 4x400m relay team with the addition
of two 400m hurdlers in the acknowledged Kemi Adekoya, and the 21-year-old
Aminat Yousef Jamal Odeyemi (400m SB 53.02s), also of Nigerian origin.
Adekoya, who won the 400m-400m hurdles double at the
last Games in Incheon, who was in poor form at the beginning of the season,
seems to have rounded into fine shape just in time, having season best 55.45s
in the 400m hurdles and 53.38s in the 400m flat.
Added to this three-some would be Ofonime Odiong,
essentially a 100-200 sprinter who has run the 4x400m relay also in the past.
The Indian team could be having Hima Das, M.
R.Poovamma and Sarita Gaykwad along with V. K. Vismaya, the last-named having
come through a trial on Aug 24 to determine who could be the fourth runner. How
Gayakwad who has a season best of only 53.24 has been kept away from the time
trials in Jakarta would come into question.
As per AFI’s policy of keeping the ‘non-campers’ out
of the relays, Nirmala Sheoran, has reportedly been excluded at the time of
writing but you never know with these policies and pronouncements. Nirmala’s
own form would be judged on the opening day when the 400m heats are scheduled.
India still looks strong, having clocked 3:33.23
without Hima Das and Nirmala in Kladno, Czech Republic, on July 29. But nothing
can be taken for granted when the likes of Naser (PB 49.08) and Adekoya are
running. Bahrain, however, does not have much of a history in relay running in
women’s 4x400m.
Qatar looks strong in men's 4x400
The Indian men’s 4x400m team also could be tested
severely by the Qatari team. The top three 400m runners in the Asian lists this
season are from Qatar! Abdelelah Haroun at 44.07s, Abderrahmane Samba, the
better known 400m hurdler, at 44.62 and Mohammad Nasser Abbas at 45.15. Then
comes India’s Muhammed Anas with 45.24s. The three Qataris could be joined by a
fourth runner who might not be in the same league but the team would still be
the one to beat. Incidentally, Samba is unbeaten in the hurdles this season
with a world-leading 46.98s in Lausanne as his best.
India’s fortunes will hinge on Anas’s form and that of
the No. 2 man, Arokia Rajiv. Anas had hit the headlines, finishing fourth in the
Commonwealth Games in a national record 45.31s which he further cut to 45.24s
in the Czech Republic. Both he and Rajiv had been concentrating on their speed
by running a few 200m in the final weeks of preparations in Europe rather than
continuing with the 400m.
The mixed relay, a novelty in Asian Games, but which
had been tried out in the World Relays, is going to be a fight between India and
Bahrain. India has good runners in both men and women’s sections while Bahrain
has one good male runner in Abbas Abubaker (SB 45.77s) to go with their awesome
female runners, probably Naser and Aminat Jamal. It will be an interesting race
in which India is expected to have the edge. If Hima Das is not available for
the mixed race as had been mentioned in reports initially (since dismissed by
AFI), the Indian team would be considerably weakened.
(Contd Part II)
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