India has high hopes on its athletes in Asiad (Part I)

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)