The Hindu : Sport / Athletics : 16-member team leaves for London; coach Snesarev optimistic

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16-member team leaves for London; coach Snesarev optimistic

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: A batch of 16 athletes comprising middle and long distance runners and male walkers left here for London on Thursday night on a six-week training-cum-competition programme designed towards Beijing Olympics qualification.

The walkers, having failed at the World Race Walking Cup in Cheboksary, Russia (May 11), are being given another chance to qualify for the Olympics in the 20km event at the Grand Prix Race Walking event at Leamington, Warwickshire, on June 14. They had competed in the 50km event in Cheboksary.

The middle and long distance runners are expected to compete in two meets in Russia apart from a few other meets in the UK and rest of Europe while keeping the Newham Sports Academy, Newham, the London Borough that will be host to the 2012 Olympics, as their base.

Belarus coach Nikolai Snesarev, who is accompanying the team, was optimistic about at least a few of the runners making the grade for the Olympics.

Despite great promise at the Asian indoor championships, the middle distance runners had been disappointing during the domestic meets early this season, but Snesarev was of the opinion that better climatic conditions in Europe could lead to faster timings.

“The Olympics are in Beijing. That means we have to be in Asia rather than in Europe during our preparations. The sooner we can get this qualification matter over the better it would be for the athletes. They can then come back and train at home,” said Snesarev on Thursday.

Five Indian athletes, triple jumper Renjith Maheswary and discus thrower Vikas Gowda among men, and long jumper Anju George, discus thrower Krishna Poonia and heptathlete Susmita Singha Roy among women, have so far qualified for the Beijing Games.

The team to London: Men: Sajeesh Joseph and Rajeev Ramesan (800m); Chatholi Hamza, Ravinder Sharma Bharadwaj and Pritam Bind (1500m), Surendra Singh and Sandip Kumar (5000m, 10,000m); Basant Bahadur Rana, P.S. Jalan, Harminder Singh, Babubhai Panucha and Chandan Singh (walk).

Women: Sinimole Paulose and Sushma Devi (800m, 1500m); Preeja Sreedharan and Kavita Raut (5000m, 10000m).

Coaches: Nikolai Snesarev and Harmana Ram.

The qualification marks:

Men: 800m: 1:46.00 (A), 1:47.00 (B); 1500m: 3:36.00 (A), 3:39.00 (B); 5000m: 13:21.50 (A), 13:28.00 (B); 10,000m: 27:50.00 (A), 28:10.00 (B; 20km walk: 1:23:00 (A), 1:24:30 (B).

Women: 800m: 2:00.00 (A), 2:01.30 (B); 1500m: 4:07.00 (A), 4:08.00 (B); 5000m: 15:09.00 (A), 15:24.00 (B); 10,000m: 31:45.00 (A), 32:20.00 (B).

Two athletes can be entered if both achieve ‘A’ standard while a single entry will require the ‘B’ norm.

Individual qualification marks can be achieved up to July 23.

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