The Hindu : Sport / Athletics : An opportunity for throwers

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, May 09, 2005

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Sport - Athletics

An opportunity for throwers

K.P. Mohan

NEW DELHI: The Indian athletics season begins this year with a National meet for throws and pole vault. Christened the ATE Salwan National meet, it will be held at the Salwan Public School here on Monday and Tuesday.

Competitions will be held in senior as well as three junior sections — under-20, under-18 and under-16 — in this inaugural prize money meet that is expected to get a permanent slot in the national calendar and turn into international from next year.

"This meet is being held in an attempt to provide more opportunities to our athletes," said the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) Secretary, Lalit

Bhanot, on Sunday. "We do need to add a few more meets in order to get the optimum results," added Mr. Bhanot.

From next year onwards, there would be a separate competition for jumps. The effort at bifurcation is a welcome one. It not only lessens the burden on staging units but will also help the throwers or jumpers, as the case may be, get into the limelight more than in an ordinary National-level meet.

Further, it should also provide the juniors an opportunity to watch some of the top seniors in competition from close quarters.

The AFI has taken over the staging responsibility of this meet, with ATE, athletics equipment-manufacturing company, and the Salwan Public School that houses the National academy for throws, pitching in with their support.

There will be a prize fund of over a lakh of rupees.

Almost all the top throwers of the country, barring shot putter Bahadur Singh, the Asian Games champion, have entered the competition here. Bahadur, after a disappointing three-foul elimination in the Olympics, could have been expected to challenge veteran Shakti Singh, but marriage upset his training schedule and thus forced him to skip this meet. Shakti will have Navpreet Singh and Ranvijay Singh as his main rivals. Ranvijay, incidentally, had become the third Indian, behind Shakti and Bahadur, to cross 20 metres last season. His performance here will be keenly watched.

Surekha's presence

The pole-vaulters, especially in the women's section, should also get into the limelight. National records are regularly updated in this event and with V. S. Surekha around, this could be a possibility in this meet, too. Geesh Kumar, who went up to 4.95m last season, should be the man to beat in the men's section.

The meet begins at 4 p.m. and will be held partly under floodlights since the closure is expected past 8 p.m. DD Sports is scheduled to provide live coverage.

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