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India’s preparedness for the Olympics on trial

K.P. Mohan

— Photo: Vipin Chandran

RARING TO GO: The Indian team practising in Kochi on Thursday.

KOCHI: The state of Indian athletics and the preparedness of the Olympic probables will be on trial as the first South Asian championships get underway at the Maharaja’s Stadium here on Friday.

Indian athletics looked good at the Asian championships in Amman last September. It looked better last month at the Asian indoor championships in Doha where the country’s athletes collected a bagful of medals.

Medals should be there in plenty for the home athletes in this two-day meet. But, from a long-term perspective, are we aiming for just medals in South Asia? Do we have ambitions beyond such regional competitions and if so where do we stand vis-a-vis global standards?

These are questions that keep coming up every now and then and this occasion should be no different when the country’s best athletes would be competing with their neighbours to not only make an impact in terms of medals but also to achieve Olympic qualifying standards.

Hopes belied

As the season ended last year there was hope that quite a number of Indian athletes would make the Olympics grade. That has not happened yet. Through two domestic competitions in Patiala and Bhopal, just one athlete, heptathlete Susmita Singha Roy, joined a small batch of three who had attained the norms last year.

There are expectations that more athletes would qualify over the next two days. The focus, as had been the case the past three weeks, should be on the middle distance runners. The ones to watch out for would be Chatholi Hamza, Ramesan Rajeev, Sajeesh Joseph and Sinimole Paulose, all from Kerala, which is hosting an international meet for the first time. Obviously, the home support will be a major factor as these youngsters strive to attain better marks.

Competition for the Indian athletes will essentially be among themselves in the middle and long distance events and the home runners will have to really push hard in the hot, humid conditions if they have to attain the Olympics standards.

This is not to say that everything would be a cakewalk for the Indians. Of the 35 gold medals at stake at the last South Asian Games in Colombo last Aug, India took 17, Sri Lanka 14, Pakistan three and Bangaldesh one. One prominent Pakistani, the 400m hurdles champion Allah Ditta will be missing here.

Traditional strongholds should be expected to be maintained, the only question mark being the women’s sprints where the absence of Susanthika Jayasinghe and that of Sujani Buddika, both training abroad, should open up opportunities for the Indians.

Tremendous interest

Solely viewed from the Indian angle, the timing of the women’s 4x400m relay team will be of tremendous interest since this is an Olympic qualification meet for the relays. Individually, the girls have not reached any standard to speak of and yet given the background of India’s success in this event, with the Athens Olympics bringing out a 3:26 from the Manjeet Kaur-led team, there is optimism once again.

India had finished only 22nd in the world lists last year with a best of 3:33.39 among women and 41st among men (3:07.94). The top 16 teams in the world will make it to Bejing. The Indian teams will have the chance to aim for better marks in the Asian Grand Prix series this summer.

Of considerable interest will also be the early form that Anju George can show as she prepares for what could possibly be her last Olympics. Young Mayookha Johny who touched a personal best 6.32 in Bhopal should be able to provide some competition to the star long jumper. A good performance here will help Anju gain entries in major European meets and that in turn should fine-tune her build-up for Beijing.

The woman discus throwers, Seema Antil and Harwant Kaur have been struggling to reach their wonted form. The federation was hoping that three discus throwers would qualify for Beijing. Seema is said to be in form once again and a mark of 59 metres (B’ qualification) is not being ruled out.

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