In Wuhan, Indians hope to make a mark in Asia
Shot-putter Inderjeet Singh has modified his diet since reaching Wuhan earlier this week. The non-vegetarian fare available in the Central China city has forced the vegetarian to look for comfort food. He is missing his dal-roti and has had to make do with salad, rice and potatoes.
The 26-year-old stands at 6’5″ and weighs in at 150 kilograms, so he needs to get the right fuel to keep his hulk of a frame in peak condition. However, on the eve of the men’s shot put final at the 21st Asian Athletics Championships, Inderjeet is not being picky about his food. His focus has now shifted to the throwing circle at the Wuhan Sports Centre. The in-form shot-putter goes into the championships with a tag that an Indian athlete can rarely boast of. He is currently the leading Asian thrower. His personal best of 20.65 metres at the Federation Cup in May makes him one of the favourites in the men’s final to be held at 3:40 pm Wuhan time.
Inderjeet also proved that he has maintained his form by registering a distance of 20.43 metres in his first attempt during the World University Games trials held at Patiala. Since winning the bronze at the Incheon Asian Games last year, Inderjeet has been consistent with his performances and if he can further improve his personal best, it will only bode well for the athlete who has qualified for the Rio Olympic Games.
The absence of the gold-medal winner of the previous edition held in Pune, Saudi Arabia’s Sultan Abdulmajeed Al-Hebshi, will make Inderjeet’s chances of finishing in the top-two seem brighter. But he will still have to overcome the challenge from Incheon silver medalist Chang Ming-Huang from Chinese-Taipei. Ming-Huang has a personal best of 20.58m, but his best throw this season has been a below-par 19.18 metres.
Another Indian athlete who is leader when it comes to Asian performances this year is discus thrower Vikas Gowda. The USA-based Indian has a season best of 65.75 metres and will be aiming to win gold at Wuhan. Gowda, though, has already qualified for the World Championships in Beijing and will have his sights set on crossing the 66-metre mark — the Rio Olympics qualifying standard.
With the IAAF revising the qualifying standards for the Olympics, it has become tougher in certain disciplines to qualify for the Games, and the men’s discuss is one of them. Earlier there were two standards, the ‘A’ and the ‘B’ with the latter being the easier of the two. But now there is just one qualifying standard in each discipline. Incidentally, Gowda has registered just one throw over 66 metres in his career.
Of the others, who have the potential to win a medal, 800 metres runner Tintu Luka, the bronze-medalist from Pune, has posted the best time by an Asian runner this year (2:01.86) and will be the favourite to win her event. Her chances of finishing on top of the podium have improved significantly as defending champion Wang Chunyu of China and Asiad gold medalist Margarita Mukasheva (Kazakhstan) will not be participating in Wuhan.
Luka can make the cut for the Beijing World Championships, as can other athletes who have not already met qualifying standards, by winning gold in Wuhan. This is possible because, the continental champion (area champion) automatically qualifies for the World Athletics Championships.
When it comes to putting pride on the line, India’s 4×400 metre women’s relay team will have to quickly find their baton-exchange rhythm if they are to defend the title. During the selection trials held in Patiala, the baton exchange was botched up at the first exchange when Anu Raghavan could not complete the handover to Debasree Majumdar.
This resulted in the squad clocking a timing of 3:39.23, well off the qualifying guideline of 3:06.09. The trails were conducted again and only then did the team make the cut for Wuhan.
In the men’s long jump, India will have the luxury of fielding two jumpers — Premkumar Kumaravel and Ankit Sharma —who have crossed the eight-metre mark this year. But landing a medal for either of them won’t be an easy task with another six competitors who have crossed the 8-metre mark in the fray.
Indians in action today: Mayookha Johny, long jump; Inderjeet Singh, men’s shot put; Siddhanth Thingalaya 110m hurdles
