Indian Athletics Thread ...

[sameerph]

Another new national record for Neeraj Chopra in Stockholm Diamond league with 89.94 mtr but he wins only a silver with this year's world leader Greneda's Anderson Peters throwing 90.31 mtrs. Neeraj still just short of 90M meter mark. I think next up for him is world championships.

[arjun2761]

Solid performance by Neeraj. Among those he beat was the winner from one of his recent competitions where he also finished second. His 2nd, 3rd, and 4th best throws were also better than the respective 2nd, 3rd, and 4th best throws from the winner of this competition.

[suresh]

Missing the magical 90m mark by 6 cm! He should aim for 91m.

[sameerph]

High Court directs AFI to consider Tejaswin Shankar's case
https://www.news9live.com/sports/athlet ... ump-177937

Now, Tejswin Shankar is included in Indian team for CWG-

High jumper Tejaswin Shankar to be part of Indian contingent ..

[jayakris]

PT Usha to be a Rajyasabha MP. How cool is that?

[arjun2761]

High Court directs AFI to consider Tejaswin Shankar's case
https://www.news9live.com/sports/athlet ... ump-177937

Now, Tejswin Shankar is included in Indian team for CWG-

High jumper Tejaswin Shankar to be part of Indian contingent ..

Good to see Tejaswin make it to the CWG team. On current best jump list for 2022, he is T-16th with one from NZ and one from CAN ahead of him among CWG countries. Among Asians there is a surprising Korean at #2 spot along with the world champion from Qatar and a Japanese jumper also ahead of him at T-4th spot. So, he'll have to be at his best to medal at either of the games this year.

There is also a Sri Lankan in the T-16th spot who won the NCAA Div 2 (i.e., smaller colleges) title this year whereas Tejaswin was the NCAA Div 1 champion this year.

[sameerph]

World Athletics Championships begins on Friday at Oregon, USA and we seem to have our biggest contingent taking part.

This is our full team-

Neeraj Chopra – Men’s Javelin Throw
Rohit Yadav – Men’s Javelin Throw
Annu Rani – Women’s Javelin Throw
Tajinderpal Singh Toor – Men’s Shot Put
Priyanka Goswami – Women’s 20km Race Walk
Sandeep Kumar – Men’s 20km Race Walk
Murali Sreeshankar – Men’s Long jump
Muhammed Anees Yahiya – Men’s Long Jump
Jeswin Aldrin – Men’s Long Jump
Abdulla Aboobacker – Men’s Triple jump
Praveen Chithravel – Men’s Triple jump
Eldhose Paul – Men’s Triple Jump
Avinash Sable – Men’s 3000m Steeplechase
Parul Chaudhary – Women’s 3000m Steeplechase
MP Jabir – Men’s 400m Hurdles
Noah Nirmal Tom – Men’s 4x400m Relay
Amoj Jacob (Arokia Rajiv) – Men’s 4x400m Relay
Muhammed Ajmal – Men’s 4x400m Relay
Naganathan Pandi – Men’s 4x400m Relay
Rajesh Ramesh – Men’s 4x400m Relay
Muhammed Anas Yahiya – Men’s 4x400m Relay
S Dhanalakshmi – Women’s 200m

Neeraj Chopra will be aiming to repeat his olympics gold here and is third in world leading list this year. Surprisingly, we have 3 competitors each in mens long jump and triple jump and in long Jump, Murali Sreeshankar has the second best mark this year. Can we have a surprise medal here ?

[prasen9]

No.

[suresh]

The online sports site bridge.in thinks that Sable is a medal prospect. Steeplechase is tough and so his chances are small and he doesn't have much experience against top-notch competition. He ran a 8:12 (and finished fifth) where he stayed back for most of the race and got to the front with a late push. The winner as at 7:58 (14s is a huge gap). I think Neeraj Chopra is our only serious medal prospect.

[sameerph]

We will get an idea tomorrow morning India time if Avinash Sable or Murali Sreeshankar have an outside shot at medal. Their qualifying events are scheduled for Saturday early morning India time. I will be happy if they post their personal best or at least come close to it.

[suresh]

Avinash Sable and Murali Sreeshankar qualify for the finals. Avinash finished third in his heat with a timing of 8:18.75 -- the fourth place finisher also had the same time but Avinash must have made it through in a photo finish. Sreeshankar made it with a jump of 8m which was the seventh best.

[sameerph]

Yes,both finished 7th overall in qualifactions.

Long jump final is on Saturday evening ( Sunday morning India time). Qualification topper only had a jump of 8.18M. So, maybe top jumpers held back in qualifications. A top 8 finish would be great for Sreeshankar.

[arjun2761]

Solid performance by both. While I don’t expect either to medal, repeating the 7th place or better will be a solid achievement.

[srini]

Yea, it would be solid achievement if both can repeat the 7th placed finish in Finals too! On the otherhand Neeraj has started very late in the season compared to his counterparts and seems to be peaking at the right time for this championship. I predict a 90+ throw for him for the 1st time and if he can surpass Peters here with a Gold he would become one of the few athletes who followed up an Olympics Gold with a Gold @ Worlds

[sameerph]

Murali Sreeshankar did finish 7th in mens long jump final. His effort of 7.96 M was lower than his qualifying mark of 8M and it was well below his season and personal best. Still finishing 7th in a world championships is really good by our standards and hope Murali will get confidence from this performance and will be a medal contender by Paris olympics in 2 years time.

As for other games, Murali was top among commonwealth nations and will have a decent chance for gold at CWG in few days time.

Chinese athlete Wang jumped 8.36M to win gold here. Another Japanese was the qualification topper although he faltered today and finished 10th. So, Murali will have quite a challenge at next year's Asiad.