The Hindu : Sport : Anju's plans suffer a setback

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Wednesday, May 30, 2007
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Anju's plans suffer a setback

K.P. Mohan

Asian GP not to have longjump

LOOKING AHEAD: Despite the setback, Anju Bobby George is confident of qualifying for the World championships in Osaka. — File Photo: V. Sudershan

NEW DELHI: Anju George's season-starting plans have suffered a setback, but the Kerala long jumper is confident of attaining her immediate goal, of qualifying for the World championships in Osaka, Japan, through participation in the European circuit.

Having announced sometime ago that she would be starting her season with the Asian Grand Prix in Bangkok (June 19), Anju was surprised and disappointed to learn recently that women's long jump was not part of the circuit. The three-leg circuit will have its last two meets in India, in Guwahati on June 23 and Pune on June 27.

"Initially we were told that long jump would be part of the circuit, but now we are told it is not. We have to see how best to re-draw her competition schedule," said her husband and coach Bobby George on Monday.

With two of the three meets being held in India, one would have expected the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) to exert itself to get events beneficial to the Indian athletes included in the Asian GP series. But that did not happen.

Thus, we have women's high jump, triple jump, shot put and javelin in the programme, with none among the Indian ranks in serious contention in any of these events or aiming for Worlds qualification.

Not much relevance

With the top Indian 400 metres runners in both sections scheduled to proceed for a European tour (or to an alternative destination in case the tour fails to come off), the presence of the 400 metres in the list has also lost much of its relevance in the Indian context.

The other events in the Asian GP circuit are: Men: 100m, 1500m, 3000m, 400m hurdles, high jump, triple jump, shot put, discus, 4x100m, 4x400m; women: 100m,100m hurdles, 4x100m, 4x400m.

(Incidentally, triple jumper Renjith Maheswary and discus thrower Vikas Gowda have qualified for the World championships with current season's performances. The women's 4x400m relay team is pre-selected for the Osaka meet. Shot putter Navpreet Singh, woman discus thrower Krishna Poonia (or Seema Antil), quarter-miler Manjeet Kaur and heptathlete Susmita Singha Roy can fall back on their 2006 performances for qualification.)

"It would have been nice to start at home," said Anju. "My immediate target is the qualification mark for the World championships. I am confident I will be able to achieve that in Europe," she said.

Qualification mark

The qualification mark stands at 6.60 metres. Anju's best jump last season was 6.54 metres. She has time till August 13 to achieve the criterion. The World championships are scheduled from August 25 to September 2.

"We are trying to get entries in several meets in Europe, but nothing has been finalised yet," said Bobby George.

Oslo (Golden League, June 15), Ostrava (Grand Prix, June 27), Sheffield, UK (Grand Prix, July 15), Rethimno, Greece (Permit meet, July 18) and Madrid (Grand Prix, July 21) are in the scheme of things, but George is not sure whether women's long jump would be part of the schedule at all these meetings. "We will have to look for a couple of smaller meets in between," he said.

After the Asian championships in Beirut (July 29-August 2), Anju is hoping to compete in the Super Grand Prix meets in Crystal Palace, UK (Aug 3) and Stockholm (Aug 7) before returning to Bangalore and launching her final preparation for the World championships.

With a heel injury forcing her to miss the better part of the World Athletics Tour last season, Anju finds herself out of the world rankings right now, without having the minimum six meetings in the preceding 52 weeks that are counted for ranking purposes. In the May 14 rankings, she was No. 32. The 2003 World championship bronze medallist had closed 2006 at 23.

"Right now we are not concerned with the rankings. We have to get the World championships qualification out of our minds," said George. He said Anju's training had gone off well during the past few weeks.

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