The Hindu : Sport / Athletics : Combined Events Nationals from today

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Thursday, Jun 01, 2006

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Combined Events Nationals from today

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The dust-storm and the rains that lashed the city on Wednesday evening must have brought immense relief to the athletes who have gathered here for the Combined Events Nationals to be held at the Nehru Stadium on Thursday and Friday.

Even in ideal weather conditions, the multis drain out the athletes. You find them sprawled at the finish at the end of a decathlon or a heptathlon in every other meet, gasping and barely able to stand on their feet.

Then, just imagine doing 10 or seven events over two days in temperatures touching 40 degrees Celsius with humidity in the plus-80 per cent region. More rains on Wednesday night should make the 6.30 a.m. start a pleasant one for the contestants, though the humidity factor will be bothersome in the second half of the day.

Badly timed

This is an ill-timed meet. What good would be gained by a meet at the height of summer in a place like Delhi, especially when the top athletes are not in the fray, will only be known to the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) and its coaches.

The top three heptathletes of the country — Soma Biswas, Susmita Singha Roy and J. J. Shobha — would not be competing here. Soma would have been better off competing in a World Combined Events Challenge meet at Arles, France, but was apparently forced to compete here. She has eventually not made it. Susmita, according to an AFI spokesman, was indisposed, while Shobha was "concentrating on her training" in Patiala, whatever that might mean.

Jora vs. Vinod

The decathlon contest should be a duel between National record holder Jora Singh and the talented P. J. Vinod. Jora, who tallied 7,502 points for a National record in the Federation Cup here in March, was a disappointment at the Commonwealth Games.

Vinod, who was hampered by an injury in the Federation Cup and still managed a personal best 7,383 points that was better than the previous National mark, should run Jora close and perhaps upstage him.

The former National record holder, Kulwinder Singh, was busy with a coach's course he had entered at the NIS, Patiala, and that should leave only Mandeep Kumar as one capable of challenging the top two in decathlon.

Competitions will be held in the boys' and girls' under-20, under-18 and under-16 categories apart from the men's and women's sections.

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