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| M. Anas is ranked an impressive 19th in the world in the 400m _Pic courtesy G. Rajaraman |
Indian athletics is on the upswing again!
The world rankings, which will come into effect from January
2019, and which are in the testing stage at the moment, show six Indian
athletes in the top-20 bracket for 2018.
Javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra is the highest ranked in the
rankings up to December 25, 2018, at No.4 in the world, a remarkable
achievement for the 21-year-old Indian who broke through only in 2016 with a
world junior record (86.48m) and the world under-20 title. Since then, he has
not looked back with a series of outstanding performances culminating in the
Asian Games gold last August with a personal best and national record of
88.06m.
Rankings are based on a complicated set of criteria that
take into account performance, placing, category of competition etc. The
highest category has Olympics and World championships while Area championships
(Asian championships for example) are rated higher than Area Games (Asian Games
for example).
Diamond League finals will come in the second category
followed by a set of IAAF World events plus Diamond League meetings. The
average score of five meetings in a 12-month span would be taken into
calculations. Points accruing from meets in the previous season would drop off
as the new season progresses. (10,000m, road events, racewalking and combined
events would be scored over an 18-month period).
Area championship given prominence
Performance in the latest Area championships would be
counted irrespective of whether they fall into the ranking period or not. The
minimum number of performances in 5000m, 3000m steeplechase and road running
events other than marathon is three while in 10,000m, marathon and combined
events it is two. In racewalking it is three for 20km and two for 50km.
Apart from Chopra, the other Indians in the top-20 rankings
for the year are: Muhammed Anas, 400m (19), Arpinder Singh, triple jump (13);
Hima Das, 400m (19), Sudha Singh, 3000m steeplechase (20) and Swapna Barman,
heptathlon (15).
This is indicative of the progress made by the Indian
athletes over the past year. Not in terms of a solitary, record-breaking
performance as it often happened in the past but through consistent
performances through the season. Of course, someone like Barman is ranked
exceptionally high at 15 thanks to the policy of the IAAF to retain the Asian
championships score (5942) of 2017, which is more than a year old, to add to
her Asian Games tally of a personal best 6026.
It may be recalled, in 2016, triple jumper Renjith Maheswary
was fourth in the world lists (as different from rankings since a single
performance in a year could gain an athlete such a distinction) with his 17.30m
performance at Bengaluru in the run-up to the Olympic Games. It is a different
matter, he could manage only 16.13m in the qualification round in Rio,
finishing overall 30th.
The highest ranked Indian in the old IAAF world rankings was
long jumper Anu George at fourth, in phases in 2004 and 2005.
In the Olympic year, Neeraj Chopra, with his world junior
mark of 86.48m, was 11th among the seniors in the world lists, long jumper
Ankit Sharma (8.19m) was 20th and woman steeplechaser Lalita Babar (9:19.76)
13th. They were lists, not rankings which are based on a set of performances
rather than a lone mark.
From being around the 75-76-metre bracket in 2010 and 2011,
Indian javelin throwers have joined the 80-metre club with Chopra threatening
to breach the 90-metre mark. His success has seen a bunch of young javelin
throwers striving to reach world standards. So much so, today India has four
javelin throwers, other than Chopra, in the top-100 of the world.
Vipin Kasana (47), Rajender Singh Dalvir (59), Sahil Silwal
(87) and Shivpal Singh (94) are the other Indian javelin throwers in the 2018
rankings who have got into the top-100. Davinder Singh Kang, the lone Indian to
make the World championships final in 2017 also would have been in this list had
he been competing but he is under a provisional suspension for doping.
Shivpal Singh (82.28m), Dalvir (90.63m) and Kasana (80.04m),
apart from Chopra, have thrown beyond 80 metres this season. It may be
mentioned here that Shivpal could manage only a 74.11m for eighth place in the
Asian Games.
The throwers in both sections will need to substantially
improve their performance in major international meets if Indian athletics has
to live up to its new-found stature of having a number of top world-ranked athletes.
The Indian athletes have done exceedingly well on track also
this year as can be seen from several of them figuring in the top-100 rankings.
Anas ranked 19th
Right on top of that list comes Muhammed Anas. The 19th rank
is an enviable position for the Kerala man who has been bettering the 400m
national record regularly since 2016. He
clocked a national record of 45.24s in an all-India race in a meet in the Czech
Republic in July last.
Arokia Rajiv, former national record holder, gives Anas
company in the top-100, being ranked 54.P. P. Kunhumohammed (183) and Amoj
Jacob (187), injured during the relay in the Commonwealth Games, are two other
Indian quarter-milers in the top-200.
Jinson Johnson, who bettered Sriram Singh 1976 national
record in the 800m (1:45.77) with an awesome 1:45.65 at the Gwahati Inter-State
meet, is ranked joint 43rd in the 800m though he could manage only the silver
behind team-mate Manjit Singh in the event in the Asian Games. Manjit is at
joint 83rd. In the 1500m in which Johnson won the gold in the Asian Games, he
is ranked 46. Johnson had bettered Bahadur Prasad’s 1995 mark (3:38.00) in the
metric mile with a 3:37.86 for fifth place in the Gold Coast Commonwealth
Games.
Ayyasamy Dharun’s progress in the 400m hurdles has been nothing
short of spectacular this season. Even when he was far from fit, he had clocked
49.45s for a national record in the Fed Cup at Patiala in March, bettering
Joseph Abraham’s 2007 record of 49.51s clocked in the Osaka World
championships. He followed that up with another NR of 48.96s for second place
in the Asian Games final behind Aberrahmane Samba of Qatar. Dharun is ranked
33.
Depth in hurdles
Interestingly, India has two more athletes in the men’s 400m
hurdles rankings who are within the top-100, M. P. Jabir (59) and T. Santhosh
Kumar (61). Such talent and depth in an event in which India’s best last year
was the 128th place for Santhosh (50.16s) in world lists. Jabir was at 138th
place (50.22s) and Dharun (50.81s) at 237th. This year, Santhosh has clocked
49.66 (5th Asian Games) and Jabir 50.02 (Open National). India has two more
athletes in the sub-51 bracket this season, Vijay Singh Malik and Jashanjot
Singh.
Prominent Indians to be ranked in the field events, apart
from Arpinder Singh, included shot putter Tejinder Pal Singh Toor who is 23rd.
Toor had a national record of 20.75m for his gold in the Asian Games that
fetched him a whopping 1362 performance score. He average a ranking score of
1197 over five meets. He had one other effort of more than 20 metres, 20.24 in
the Fed Cup. His slump to 19.37m in the Inter-State at Guwahati was a surprise
but he compensated with the national record and gold in Jakarta.
Two of the most promising youngsters to get into the top-50
in the world are high jumper Tejaswain Shankar (35) and long jumper M.
Sreeshankar (40) who posted a national record of 8.20m in winding up the season
at the Open.
Arpinder Singh scored heavily from the Jakarta Asian Games (16.77m,
1st, 1280 points) and Ostrava Continental Cup (16.59m, 3rd, 1271). He had
16.62m in the Open in Ranchi, 16.46m in CWG and 16.33m in last year’s Asian
championships for a highly satisfying 13th rank in the world. Rakesh Babu was 63rd.
(-Contd. Part II)
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