The Hindu : A better fare expected

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Oct 28, 2003

Sport

Sport - Afro-Asian Games

A better fare expected

By K.P. Mohan

HYDERABAD OCT 27. Athletics might turn out to be one of the few disciplines to shed the mediocre tag in the Afro-Asian Games, though it will surely fall well short of the expected standards and the projected star-cast.

A cursory glance through the entries on the eve of the athletics action that should bring the Games alive from Tuesday, shows that there is one reigning world champion in women's 5,000m runner Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia, a World championship bronze medallist in another Ethiopian, Sileshi Sihine, the 10,000m runner, and a former world champion and Olympics silver medallist, veteran sprinter Frankie Fredericks of Namibia, in the fray. Of course, India's very own World championship medal winner, Anju George, is also in the field.

Another World championship bronze medallist, sprinter Shingo Suetsugu of Japan has been listed in the entries, though there is no confirmation yet.

The `cream vs cream,' the oft-repeated slogan among officials will remain a mirage, however, since a majority of the big stars are not coming. Yet, the sport that normally livens up any multi-discipline games should whet the appetite of the fans in a city that has not seen top-level athletics bar the Asian Grand Prix meets of the past two seasons.

The presence of Fredericks should indeed bring the much-touted world-class appeal to the Games. The Namibian, who took the 200m silver at the recent All-Africa Games in Abuja, has recently denied that he was retiring, as reported, but was in fact looking forward to these Games as well as the Athens Olympics next year. The 36-year-old will ever be remembered as the first from his country to win an Olympic medal. He has four silver medals, from the 100m and 200m in the Olympics in 1992 and 1996.

The strong Ethiopian presence is inclusive of a few well-established distance runners apart from Sihine and Dibaba. Sihine should battle it out with teammates Gebre-egziabher Gebremariam and Dejene Birhanu in the 10,000m. The immensely talented Hailu Mekonnen, another Ethiopian, has been entered in the 5,000m where he should face tough competition from teammate Genet Markos and Tanzanian John Yuda.

Asia has responded rather disinterestedly to these Games. Not that Africa is sending its best. Eight world champions from that continent will still be missed, not to speak of many medallists from the All-Africa Games. But Asia looks still worse represented.

Fourteen of the men's champions from the Busan Asian Games who accounted for 15 gold medals are not here in the 19 individual events that have been included in the men's programme. Nine female champions who accounted for 10 gold in Busan are not in the fray in the 19 individual events that are to be held over the next three days.

Of the home entrants, Beenamol will restrict herself to running the 4x400m relay and not risk her injury by running the individual 400m or the 800m, the event she won in Busan. "Even the relay might be in suspense," said Beenamol.

Anju George, who arrived here on Sunday and lost some of her cool, being forced to fend for herself for quite sometime in search of her accommodation, should start the favourite.

Nigerians Esther Aghatise and Grace Umolo, Mali's Camara Kadiatou and Chinese Liang Shuyan are all in the 6.50-plus bracket. Anju, with her bronze-winning 6.70 at the World championships is on a high, though physically she is just in the mood to end the long-winding season.

Confidence is not lacking in high jumper Bobby Aloysius as well, despite a disastrous Asian championships in Manila where she went out of the medals bracket by scaling just 1.80m. She and her English coach Denis Doyle have worked hard ever since and an early acclimatisation, as suggested by Doyle this time, should hopefully benefit her.

Bobby will have Nneka Unuh of Nigeria and South African Marsica Gertenbach, both 1.84 jumpers, as her main opponents in a rather thin field.

Shot putters Shakti Singh and Bahadur Singh should also fancy their chances, though South African Burger Lambrechts and Nigerian Chima Ugwu will not be easy to beat. Both Africans have personal bests of 20m-plus, but have not been in any great form of late.

Any medal by an Indian, however, will have to be viewed with the level of performance and the strength of the field in mind.

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