Indian Athletics Thread ...

[PKBasu]

Long jump and triple jumpers do occasionally have a freakishly longer jump than usual, that is never repeated. Bob Beamon's 1968 leap of 29 feet 2-1/4 inches (8.90m) is the most celebrated -- helped of course by the high altitude at the Mexico Olympics. But many others had similar ones: TC Yohannon could never repeat the 8.07m he leapt at the Tehran Asiad (I think he only did 7.69m at the Montreal Olympics two years later). As an amateur long jumper and triple jumper, I remember from 40-42 years ago that everything can come together some times in competition, for a leap well beyond one does even in practice.

But yes, the Indian jumpers seem to have a lot of much longer jumps in domestic competitions, and then never get anywhere close (often 50cm behind their best) in International competitions. That definitely points the needle of suspicion.

[arjun2761]

Aren’t those rankings purely a function of official highest jump of the season? Jeswin was ranked 3rd last season but obviously that jump is a joke.

It is not as simplistic as that. You may be confusing it with their top list. They describe it as below:

World Athletics has undertaken to create a global ranking system where athletes score points based on a combination of result and place depending on the level of the competition in which the result is achieved. The ranking is then based on their average score over a certain number of competitions in a defined period of time.

[PKBasu]

Avinash Sable seems to be a legitimate contender to make the final of the 3000m steeplechase. Some of his best performances have been outside India, often breaking the previous national record at an international meet.

[Sin Hombre]

It would be a shock if he doesn’t PKB.

He is our 3rd best athlete by world standards and by some distance.

[Mugundan]

It would be a shock if he doesn’t PKB.

He is our 3rd best athlete by world standards and by some distance.

Who is the second one in your assessment? Just curious. Could it be Sreeshankar?

[ankit1407]

Has to be Sreeshankar I think..

[Sin Hombre]

Yes. Not the other javelin thrower.

[arjun2761]

Avinash Sable seems to be a legitimate contender to make the final of the 3000m steeplechase. Some of his best performances have been outside India, often breaking the previous national record at an international meet.

He looks to be in decent form with a 6th place finish in the Paris Diamond League event in July 2024.

He is 15th in the world ranking but could be a little higher as he beat 2 higher ranked runners in the Paris Diamond League event although he finished behind 5 others who are ranked higher. Based on the top timing in 2024, he has the 10th fastest time, so that may reflect his true current ranking...

[PKBasu]

So Avinash Sable ran comfortably (without straining himself too much) and still qualified for the Olympic final - but that final will feature a rather large field of 15 runners.

[arjun2761]

Actually 16 runners are in the final field as World #5 from Kenya was reinstated by the judges after being impeded in some way...

[jayakris]

I just wrote a longish post about the timings in the steeple chase heats today, as I saw all three heats on NBC and found it very interesting how Avinash finished it. @srini was asking about the energy expense matter too. I don't think saving energy for the final is that tremendously important in a 3000m event as it is say for a 200m event, but I am not an expert. Please take a look at this post in the General thread.

@Mugu, does what I say make sense, that this was actually a pretty damn good run by Avinash, and it shows that he might have it in him to finish top-5 or even a medal? He was very close to his NR today as he slammed the brakes down in the final 200 meters.

[PKBasu]

I think it was a bit ridiculous of Avinash to slow down so much in the final 200m. He had already expended a lot of energy; why not keep it going until the finish line?

[arjun2761]

Just saw the replay. Avinash is the one who set the faster pace in the beginning but he was the the one flagging at the end. Yes, he almost slowed down to a walk in the last few steps but he was significantly behind the top 4 much earlier. Not sure that he can keep up with the top 3 in his heat in a faster race. If it is a slow tactical race, then he has a small chance of a top 5 finish. Otherwise, he is probably in the 8-10 range in the final field.

[jayakris]

Just saw the replay. Avinash is the one who set the faster pace in the beginning but he was the the one flagging at the end. Yes, he almost slowed down to a walk in the last few steps but he was significantly behind the top 4 much earlier. Not sure that he can keep up with the top 3 in his heat in a faster race. If it is a slow tactical race, then he has a small chance of a top 5 finish. Otherwise, he is probably in the 8-10 range in the final field.

No he wasn't significantly behind the top-4 "much earlier". At one point he moved up to 2nd (at the 2000 mark) and he was right with them at 200 meters and then he slowed down and we saw him counting on his fingers that there were 4 in front of him.

He was not the one who set the pace either. He was with the front 8 for a while, then was with the front 4, but never really setting the pace. Maybe he pushed front group a bit from 1500 to 2000, if that is what you meant.

And then, the pace was not slow at all. I am not sure what made you think that it was a slow race. Look at the times. They are where the faster heat was expected to end. Aren't they? He simply slowed down by 3 seconds in the end, as there was a 7 second gap from the front 5 to the next.

Puzzled...

[But I agree that he won't make top-5 without at least 4 or 5 seconds of better time in the final. That is, he will have to break the NR he set last month, to finish top-5]

[Sin Hombre]

Arjun is not saying this was a slow heat. He is saying similar to what I wrote yesterday.

In a fast race, the top guys will dip well below 8:10. Sable has no medal prospects in that race imo unless he breaks his national record by a few seconds. Slower tactical race or a race with incidents, much better.

Do agree with you jay that he was with the top-2 for most of the race.