NEW DELHI: The portents look gloomier than ever before for the Athletics Federation of India even as the first stage of the selection process for the Doha Asian Games has arrived in the form of the 46th Open National athletics championships.

The federation, as usual, has pegged its medal chances quite high for the Asian Games to come off in December. An initial assessment about what could lie in store can be made over the next four days at the Nehru Stadium here when the Open meet will provide the country's best talent an opportunity to attain the qualifying marks for the Doha Games.

The AFI has not revealed a set of criteria for the Asian Games. Normally the Union Sports Ministry adopts the third-place criteria, meaning the third place performance of the last Asian Games (or last Asian championships, whichever is higher), but this time the federations have been told through the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) that the criteria should not be below the fourth place.

Given the lack of transparency, the athletes are unaware of this ministry missive. Most are under the impression that it is the third-place norm. The federation might stiffen or dilute the standards in the next few weeks. A few additional trials could be expected since this has become the practice. A provisional list is expected to be drawn up at the end of this meet.

Eight make the grade

Eight athletes have so far made the grade if one were to take the third-place norm, metric miler C. Hamza, shot putter Navpreet Singh and discus thrower Vikas Gowda among men and 400m runner Manjeet Kaur, 800m runner Pinki Paramanik, long jumper Anju George and discus thrower Seema Antil and heptathlete Susmita Singha Roy among women. A few more would make it if the criterion is lowered to the fourth place.

There is still time left for the athletes to go for it with a few more meets to come before the team gains final shape. In any case, going by AFI's track record, there should be no worry for the top-ranked athletes about their inclusion in the Asiad squad.

If there is a feeling that has gained ground through this season that Indian athletics cannot repeat its Busan Asian Games feat of seven gold medals in Doha it is only because of the paucity of top-level marks in recent months.

It is for the athletes to disprove such theories. For starters they will have to compete rather than shy away from national-level meets.

The constant vigil that the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) has kept on the Indian athletes has not helped matters from the athletes' perspective. There are murmurs that performances have dipped this season thanks to the surprise visits by the WADA teams.

Among those missing from this meet would be long jumper Anju George. She had a three-month break due to a heel injury before taking part in the SA Games in Colombo and recording a 6.42m for the gold. But she is not happy with her current level of preparation and would prefer to wait for a Circuit meet this month-end or the inter-State in Chennai in November to test herself out.

It is to be hoped that all the athletes who undertook ostensible training trips to Ukraine and Italy would be ready and eager to compete here.

Preeja sets record

Preeja Sreedharan, the 24-year-old Idukki girl, posted a National record, her second in less than two months, while winning the 10,000 metres in 34:11.45 on Wednesday.

The two longer distance events of the Open were held a day earlier than the scheduled start in order to avoid a crowded programme and also to help the distance runners aim for the double without taxing themselves too much.

Preeja, who had set the earlier record of 34:27.13 at the South Asian Games in Colombo in August, was still far short of the Asiad qualifying norm of 31:42.58. Yet, it was brave effort running all alone in front.

The men's 10,000m title went to Surinder Singh of the Services in 29:30.48.

The results:

Men: 10,000m: 1. Surinder Singh (Ser) 29:30.48; 2. Saji Mathew (Rlys) 29:35.29; 3. Santosh Kumar (Rlys) 29:39.71.

Women: 10,000m: 1. Preeja Sreedharan (Rlys) 34:11.45 (NR, previous 34:27.13); 2. Preeti Rao (Rlys) 36:21.65; 3. Mahduri Gurnule (LIC) 38:08.95.

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