Indian Athletics Thread ...

[arjun2761]

Yes, it looks he posted a 13.66 sec time while winning the 110m hurdles at a meet in Belgium on June 18.

[sameerph]

That will be nice, Varma to have him interviewed after he has qualified for Rio. Lets us hope for that.

[sameerph]

In the womens 100M in a meet in Almaty, Kazakhstan, Dutee Chand created a new national record of 11.30 sec in heats and also qualfied for Rio olympics. So, after a long time we will be seeing an Indian in sprint events in Rio.'

Yesterday, in mens 400M in a meet in Poland, Mohd. Anas also created a national record clocking 45.44s but just missed the Rio qualfication mark of 45.40s.

I have lost count of number of national record being broken in last couple of months. We know it happens a lot in an olympic or an AG year with spinach effect and all but still the upturn is much more this time. Is there a real quantum improvement happening? What say, Mugu ?

[Mugundan]

Muhammed Anas clocked 45.40 for another national record in 400m at Bydgoszcz last evening. Thereby he also made the Olympic qualification standard which happened to be 45.40s itself.
Dutee Chand clocked 11.24 in the final in Almaty, getting the 2nd place behind host nation's Viktoriya Zyabakina (11.15s).
The improvement has been phenomenal for Dutee. So too for most others, especially relay teams and Anas. Are we seeing a real improvement in standards in Indian athletics within a matter of months of training? It is difficult to tell. If past Olympic years have to be kept in mind, the real standards would be known only at the Games.
Even as one set of athletes has shown improvement, several others have stagnated. None of the jumpers have qualified. They are in Almaty and today we might hear some news. Heard that Mayookha Johny is not cent per cent fit after her injury in Delhi. Apart from Vikas Gowda who surprisingly has not come out this season to compete, and Seema Antil the throwers are also languishing. The javelin throwers, now in Poland for more than 45 days have actually come down in their performance compared to what they did at home. Like Anas they may also produce a national record just in the nick of time!
Dutee looks capable of making the semis at least in Rio if not the final. From a long-term perspective we will have to see where the hyperandrogenism issue will end up.

[sameerph]

Great. So, we have 21 qualifiers from Athletics now. Chances of women's 4 ×400 relay team look quite good now. Also decent chances for mens longer relay team. Hope 2-3 others qualify too individually.

I guess this would turn out to be our biggest ever contigent in Athletics.

[Sin Hombre]

Dutee Chand is a genuine medal prospect if she gets a 4 year run without any bans, right?

[Tolamu]

Some more are coming. Ankit Sharma in long jump & Srabni Nanda in women's 200m. They also qualified in Kazakhstan.

[sameerph]

Yes, yet another national record in long jump by Ankit Sharma he jumped 8.14, 8.17 & 8.19 in 3 consecutive jumps and qulified for Rio.

In womens 200M, Srabni Nanda clocked 23.07 to qualfiy for Rio.

So, 23 qualfiers from athletics now.

[arjun2761]

Wow, these are some fantastic results! However, as Mugu notes, will wait to see if they can repeat in meets which have more rigorous testing....

[arjun2761]

Dutee Chand is a genuine medal prospect if she gets a 4 year run without any bans, right?

She will have to improve quite a bit to be an Olympic medal contender. 11.24 would have placed 7th in the women's NCAA finals. However, she should be an Asian gold contender.

[Mugundan]

Wow, these are some fantastic results! However, as Mugu notes, will wait to see if they can repeat in meets which have more rigorous testing....

More than "more rigorous testing" it would be the prospects of being tested in big meets that may deter athletes from doping right up to championships. I am not sure whether any of these meets in Turkey, Poland, Belgium, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan had testing at all.
The past couple of weeks Indian athletes have returned some stunning results and so many national records. Some could have been expected but not so many and that too such world-class performances. Already there is talk of a medal or two! We Indians tend to forget the past quickly.
The inter-state begins in Hyderabad tomorrow (28th). May be there will be more stunning results. The men's relay team timed 3:04 in Poland last night in a race that was of no consequence (and hence little interest) since local club teams were running. A minimum of two international teams representing two countries was needed. They need one more good time matching 3:02 clocked in Turkey earlier this month. It may come at home where Sri Lanka is being invited for a specially arranged relay for qualification purposes alongside inter-state. It is amazing the IAAF does not have provisions to prevent these sort of last-minute arrangements for qualification while in many other sports competitors slug out for more than a year just to be in line-up in Olympics.
We will wait and see how our athletes fare in Rio. And we will have to always keep in mind last-minute injuries are always part of the game! Part of the Indian game has also been "NM"in throwing events.

[prasen9]

Here is a list of number of athletes caught by country and a discussion. Discussion on doping bans In another article, I saw that after Russia, Indians and Italians (forget the order) have the most caught dopers. People are wondering why the Indians are doping and still not winning much in the thread above.

[arjun2761]

Indians aren't doping to win international titles. They are doping to get government jobs and once at that level looking to travel to the top meets so that they can take the officials with them on junkets.

[Sin Hombre]

Dutee Chand is a genuine medal prospect if she gets a 4 year run without any bans, right?

She will have to improve quite a bit to be an Olympic medal contender. 11.24 would have placed 7th in the women's NCAA finals. However, she should be an Asian gold contender.

I was referring to 4 years from now if she is allowed to compete continuously.

[prasen9]

Indians aren't doping to win international titles. They are doping to get government jobs and once at that level looking to travel to the top meets so that they can take the officials with them on junkets.

Arjun, you are right. In order to tackle this menace, we should be taking away that incentive. No jobs if you are caught doping. Or you will be fired once you are caught and not given any jobs in the next 5-10 years. Something like that will reduce this nonsense.