Indian Athletics Thread ...

[Sin Hombre]

If she is indeed only 17 years old, Shaili Singh is definitely a future Olympic medal prospect, if not in 2024, then certainly in 2028 -- although I'll be greedy and want medals at both. We need to nurture her the way Neeraj Chopra was nurtured after winning gold at the U-20 world championship five years ago.

What's the cause for the age related suspicion

[Mugundan]

Fred Kerley moved from 400m to running 100m to work on this speed. He managed to qualify and represent USA at the Tokyo Olympics, He won a silver there, by the way. He intends to eventually go back to running 400m.

Absolutely, Suresh. Runners have moved distances around to find their sweet-spot. I was wondering why a back injury would force someone to move to a faster race!

Update: Seems like she does not have the endurance to run 400m. Hima shifts She will build up the endurance and then come back in the 400. That makes sense. It is more about her conditioning rather than the bad back (which may have caused the conditioning to go down when she had to rest).

If you look at this clip from the World Juniors in 2018, it may seem Hima Das is the only one among them who has the endurance for the 400m! Not just enough endurance but abundance of it. What struck me most from the day I saw this race was Hima's ability to run through, her gesticulations as shse did, encouraging the crowd to clap for her, cheer her. Now watch the others, as it happens with most after the end of a 400m, their hands are on their waist or their knees, they are bent, trying to catch breath. It is very rare that a one-lapper, male or female will run through and won't pause even for a second to catch breath at the end of it. So endurance is not her problem. At least it wasn't in 2018. What happened for it to change in 2019? Back problem, we are told. Can that back be set right by proper medical diagnosis? May be they can, but not by High Perf Director, Chief Coach and Deputy Chief coach and foreign coach reviewing the back issue or discussing it even. There is not a single newspaper report todate that has confirmed after peoper medical examination that yes there is an incurable back problem that prevents her from running the 400m but not the 200m or 300m (in fact she did run a 300m). There is not a single report that has said a medical panel is going to examine her. (Sure, they need not reveal the outcome but they can always assure us that she is being given proper medical attention)
Agan, going by this report (esstentially a cooked-up version of the authorities being given credibility by the media, at least a section of it), she was to take a break in 2020 from 400m and come back to it in 2021. The pandemic forced a break from competition in 2020 but not from training. No one went home (a minus point since fatigue, home sickness, boredom etc set in) except to recover from an injury, to appear in an exam or for an interview. When she came back, they made it out as though this season (2021) is also gone for 400m and she would concentrate on 100 and 200, mainly for India to have a 4x100m relay team (they thought it was easy, but even with Chand and Das at their best, this was impossible this season). There was no remote chance of her making the 200m qualification.
Then the question again? Why are they fooling us? What could be wrong? If her 2018 speed was good enough for us to be counted in the 4x400m, wouldn't that have been good enough to ensure Olympic qualification? Is she going to come back for 400m in Asian Games and Commonwealth Games at least to assist the 4x400 teams?
(Sorry, that video could be seen on YouTube but not directly here becaus of copyrights. Only the video that shows her running through the finish and urging the people to clap for her and the others bending and gasping will reveal the true extent of Das's endurance)

[Mugundan]

Those are old updates prasen.

I would agree with mugu that something is suspicious. She was 23rd best in the world at age 18 and has regressed badly since.

I have a couple of questions for mugu.

a. opinions on a white Italian winning the 100m and 4x100m; and the sudden influx of very good white sprinters in both the men and women.
b. sudden improvement in top level sprint time, including women getting close (or going past) to peak doping times from the 80s.

Jacobs is 26 years old. His top six timings are from 2021! The top-three are from Tokyo, heats, semis and final. His first sub-10 (9.95s) was in May this year. in August he won the Olympic gold in 9.80s!!! These figures themselves speak a lot about what could be the secret. Moreover, there had been immeidiate speculations also. Plus he announced he won't be running again the rest of the season.
There was intense speculation that the year 2021 including the Olympics might see spectacular performances since for the better part of 2020, anti-doping agencies were unable to test athletes almost the world over because of the restriction imposed by the pandemic, lack of athletics activity, lack of competitions etc. (India was no exception). Thus the year saw some astounding world records plus second or third all-time best performances in athletics. It would be unfair to attribute everything to doping of the 80s (the Ben Johnson, GDR, Soviet era), but surely athletics experts and followers are not convinced about the performances in 2021. Female sprinting especially has been sensational this season (not discounting the Italians in the men's sprinting) and it has continued. Wonder all these are genuine.

[Mugundan]

Here's a tweet that picked the WA video of Hima Das.
It is slightly clipped in the end not showing the extent of Das's apparentt capacity after the race. But it is a clear video.

[suresh]

a. opinions on a white Italian winning the 100m and 4x100m; and the sudden influx of very good white sprinters in both the men and women.

I am not answering for Mugu. Jacobs is probably not 100% white. He has an (African?)-American father and Italian mother. His heart is 100% Italian for sure.

[suresh]

Does Hima Das have any sub 51s 400m runs? IIRC she won a series of events against low level competition and nothing else. Every one who qualified for the finals went under 50s.

[srini]

Sprinters peak at 26-29 age Suresh. Tough to expect sub 51 performance from a 21 year old imho.

[suresh]

Sprinters peak at 26-29 age Suresh. Tough to expect sub 51 performance from a 21 year old imho.

Good point. I hadn't thought about that aspect. She was at 51.42s at the U20 worlds. Hence the question. (Athing Mu is only 19! I wonder what she will be doing at her peak.)

[srini]

Probably she will be ruling roost in next 2 Olympics then...but there is lot of uncertainty in all track and field.. Injuries, the type of material used to lay track, too much competition before the important event etc are all factors that can affect the athlete's performance on the given day. If not above, weather can also play a role...after all athletics is outdoor, how can it not affect ? So not only inherent attributes like strength, endurance but having great coaching staff who can advise on these things will benefit the athletes. There may be exceptions here and there who can make the right decisions themselves but having good support staff is what i think may be lacking in general for Indian athletes more than their genes. So now from the all ongoing discussion which seems to imply something is wrong and not transparent about what's going on with Hima, i am worried about the only track medal chances i was hoping for in Paris!

[depleter]

Does Hima Das have any sub 51s 400m runs? IIRC she won a series of events against low level competition and nothing else. Every one who qualified for the finals went under 50s.

Yes she has that famous asian games final where she ran a sub 51 if I remember correctly. And the fall happened right after.

[arjun2761]

a. opinions on a white Italian winning the 100m and 4x100m; and the sudden influx of very good white sprinters in both the men and women.

I am not answering for Mugu. Jacobs is probably not 100% white. He has an (African?)-American father and Italian mother. His heart is 100% Italian for sure.

Yes, in the US, he would be classified as African American (rather than as "white") based on his dad being African American.

[arjun2761]

Does Hima Das have any sub 51s 400m runs? IIRC she won a series of events against low level competition and nothing else. Every one who qualified for the finals went under 50s.

Yes she has that famous asian games final where she ran a sub 51 if I remember correctly. And the fall happened right after.

Yes, I recall her race with another young phenom, Salwa Eid Naser, who is now under a 2 year suspension....

[jayakris]

Good discussion on Hima Das. Basically, things don't add up in Hima's case, right? Something weird is there, that we don't know well. I think Mugu has always been a bit unconvinced of something or other, when it came to Hima (though I am not sure if he has implied that there is a spinach issue). Not sure what is really going on.

[sameerph]

Does Hima Das have any sub 51s 400m runs? IIRC she won a series of events against low level competition and nothing else. Every one who qualified for the finals went under 50s.

Yes she has that famous asian games final where she ran a sub 51 if I remember correctly. And the fall happened right after.

Yes, Hima had a 50.79 at Asian games. She looked right on mark for big things then. But, something just does not seem right now about her. So, difficult to predict anything about her for now. Lets wait for next year at CWG/AG to see if she is back somewhere to her 2017-18 form or at least she is back to running 400M.

[Orang]

https://www.espn.com/athletics/story/_/ ... mpionships

Robert is even more bullish. "She will touch and go past 6.83 in another 2-3 years. But she will cross the 7m mark in three years. This I can guarantee," he said following her medal ceremony.