The Hindu : Sport / Athletics : National circuit meet begins today

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Sunday, Feb 19, 2006

Sport

Sport - Athletics

National circuit meet begins today

K.P. Mohan

PATIALA: This city will after all host the second National circuit meet. After an abortive attempt to shift the venue to Ludhiana, the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) accepted the futility of such a move and settled for the meet to be held here on Sunday.

There was an air of indifference the other day at Delhi's Nehru Stadium as the season kicked off on a sedate note in the run-up to the Melbourne Commonwealth Games.

If last summer, there was talk of more than a dozen athletes forming a strong Indian athletics squad for Melbourne this time around it has become a question of who will make it.

No one barring the 800-metre runner Ghamanda Ram has shown any signs of catching up with a performance that will clinch selection for Melbourne. Of course, two of the medal contenders from the Indian side — long jumper Anju George and discus thrower Vikas Gowda — have their own training programmes and targets set for the Games build-up.

Anju is back in Bangalore after a not-so-memorable debut at the Asian indoor championships in Pattaya, Thailand. She plans to train for two weeks before coming over to Delhi for the Federation Cup. Vikas Gowda had started the indoor season on an encouraging note, according to information received from his father Shive Gowda, in the US, shot-putting to a distance of 18.55 metres in a meet in North Carolina. Coupled with his proven talent in discus, Vikas's fine form in shot put should augur well for the country in the Melbourne Games perspective.

A lot of worries

However, at home, the Indians have had a lot of worries to overcome, especially in the aftermath of the unannounced visit from a World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) team and the disappearance (or abstention from camp) of a dozen athletes and their subsequent suspensions. A repeat "threat from WADA" cannot be ruled out, at least as far as the athletes are concerned, and the `hide and seek' looks likely to continue for some more time to come.

The absence, from the first circuit meet in Delhi, of around 20 top athletes, outside of those suspended, who figured in the training trip to South Africa, should prompt several questions from the Sports Authority of India and the Union Sports Ministry. More than one crore rupees was spent on that phase of the training programme that included a visit to Doha. One cannot envy the task of the selectors given the available talent, the gathering doping clouds, suspensions, lack of high-class performances and an overall lethargic attitude towards qualification for the Melbourne Games.

There is perhaps an air of futility in going for the qualification marks that have not been defined so far. Assuming that they could be the third-place performance of the last Games, the task before the athletes is enormous.

Only Ghamanda Ram has come close to such a mark. His 1:47.16 in Delhi was good, but still short of the third-place mark of 1:46.79. He should be through if he clocks below 1:47 here.

The woman discus throwers, Harwant Kaur and Krishna Poonia were down by about 10 metres from their best last season in a hurriedly-conducted competition in Delhi. The 59.24m qualification mark would have been a simple task for Harwant at least in the normal course. There is no news about national record holder Seema Antil, who is among those who have been suspended.

K.M. Binu is injured and is practically ruled out for the Commonwealth Games. He is back home in Kerala undergoing treatment for a hamstring injury. There is thus no realistic chance of a 4x400m relay team making the grade. The women's longer relay team should, however, make it provided all

the top quarter-milers including Asian champion and national record holder Manjeet Kaur, now under suspension, are "eligible" for selection.

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