Mugundan wrote: ↑Fri Oct 13, 2023 10:07 am
The spinach effect is all over that mark. Impossible otherwise.
He started this season with 10.94s, improved it to 10.31 in Sept in the Services championships, and now this 10.23! How can anyone improve from 10.94 to 10.23 in such aa short span of around four months?
I still remember the Euphoria of Ben Johnson 1988 gold medal. Surprisingly we were at the school sports meet at Mayor Radhakrishnan stadium when the news broke out that he obliterated the wc with a time of 979. There was a huge cheer that went up.. and for the first time in life the next day, i knew about drugs in sports.
When something is too good to be true, it probably isn’t . I think the part of me that did not celebrate this record is more from waiting for other shoe to drop rather than times relative to rest of the world. I do see Prasen point about the title of being a fastest indian could open some doors.
sameerph wrote: ↑Fri Oct 13, 2023 10:46 am
^^^ I suppose there are ways and means of not getting caught in tests. So, we cannot assume that if he returns negative in test, he is clean. We will have to wait and see if he can produce these kind of timings consistently and more importantly outside India in important meets.
I wonder what will be his motivation in consuming Spinach at this time though. One can understand before Asian games, to earn a spot in Asian games team. But, what does he gain except a name in record books ?
Maybe some visibility, paid trips to meets abroad, etc.? I do not know if there are financial awards or jobs or promotions that are offered in support?
Apart from promotion in present job or other employment opportunities, continued improvement could result in a call to join the national camp, a re-look at the federation's priorities for the sprints, especially 4x100, an induction into the TOPs that might mean enormous government funding for specialised training abroad (apart from Rs 50,000 stipend per month) and generally a proud tag as the "fastest Indian". But everything turning out in his favour in the next eight or ten months looks extremely remote.
I am not celebrating per se because of the spinach angle as well as this not being anywhere near world standards. I suppose the javeliner has made me dream of more although sprint is a different beast, with genes, twitch muscles, and all. I was just being a lawyer for those who want to celebrate.
There is no knowing whether the javelin throwers are genuine or not! At least the second-rung lot looks "spinach-hungry"! Jena has improved 9.5m in just this season. That is unheard of at least in the Indian context if not the world. Manu is hovering around 80-82. Will need a closer look at major championships over the next couple of years. Both Jena and Manu average 82-plus for their top-10 compared to 88-plus for Neeraj Chopra. They will need to show that level of consistency to get into the global reckoning. If by chance both or at least one gets into the AIU RTP from Jan next year, we will be able to get a much clearer idea. Jena was not tested out of competition since March this year till September, well past WC and just before Hangzhou departure. One might be needlessly doubting a genuine talent, but the factors do not show that he could be in the clear.
sameerph wrote: ↑Fri Oct 13, 2023 10:46 am
I wonder what will be his motivation in consuming Spinach at this time though. One can understand before Asian games, to earn a spot in Asian games team. But, what does he gain except a name in record books ?
Maybe he is a late starter on vegetarian diets, and decided to give it a go, just to see how much better he can be with it. Less problematic experimentation here than in the period before the Asiad when more eyes would have been on everybody. Perhaps he thought that he could try it at an appropriate time later, if it improved his timing enough now. If it didn't, he could quit 100m sprints and trying to bring 10.93 down below 10.50 to get into national contention. The problem may be that it worked much better than he expected and he got into the news!! Now everybody is watching, which he didn't want. He might not have expected this, basically!
Mugu, note I said "the javeliner" - not the pretenders. I do not know if the pretenders are clean but I think Neeraj is clean. Nobody knows for sure but I think.
prasen9 wrote: ↑Fri Oct 13, 2023 7:02 pm
Mugu, note I said "the javeliner" - not the pretenders. I do not know if the pretenders are clean but I think Neeraj is clean. Nobody knows for sure but I think.
I am also not hundred per cent certain if anyone in Indian athletics could be categorised as non-spinach! Yes, Neeraj Chopra, along with Avinash Sable and Sreeshankar, at this point, would be the safest bets for me. For the rest, across the board, except for in the odd event in either section, I feel spinach must have been tasted at some time or the other if not the present.
India still to make official bid for hosting World Athletics Championships in 2027
The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) will need a ”couple of more days” to decide on making a formal bid for hosting the World Athletics Championships in 2027, said its president Adille Sumariwalla on Saturday.
While the recent edition of the Worlds was held in Budapest, Hungary, the next championships will be held in Japan in 2025 with India in the fray to make a formal bid for hosting the event.
Not sure whether this has appeared here. It happened on the third day of the National Open at Bangalore. No one wanted to win the 5000m! Could it be the fear of dope-testing? What else could it have been?
Here's a tweet on the race: https://x.com/VishankRazdan/status/1712 ... 95989?s=20
Mugundan wrote: ↑Sun Oct 15, 2023 4:49 pm
Not sure whether this has appeared here. It happened on the third day of the National Open at Bangalore. No one wanted to win the 5000m! Could it be the fear of dope-testing? What else could it have been?
Here's a tweet on the race: https://x.com/VishankRazdan/status/1712 ... 95989?s=20
Is that TJ laughing at it in the replies to the tweet?
National Junior Athletics Championships 2023: Kuldeep Kumar clinches gold, breaks national record in pole vault
Later in the day, Kuldeep Kumar after winning the silver medal at National Games 2023, rose up to breach the World U-20 Championships 2024 qualifying mark of 5.05m and created a new national record by jumping 5.17m. The national record was earlier in the name of Dev Meena who clinched gold in National Games. Kuldeep by securing gold broke the meet record twice and created a new national record.
Several young athletes have performed incredibly (by Indian standards) at the just-concluded Junior Nationals at Coimbatore. Either they are awesome talent, or they are showing the results of better coaching or better facilities or the good old spinach! Kuldeep Kumar has stretched his PB by 37cm in reaching the new National record in U-20 pole vault (5.17m). Earlier Dev Meena rose this season to 5.16m for the previous record, improving by an unbelievable 56cm this season! Are these improvements possible even with spinach?
In women's 100m, Bhawna of Haryana (from where else!) clocked 11.55s to better Dutee Chand's national U-20 record of 11.63s. It turned out Bhawna's previous best was 12.09s (there apparently was also an effort of 11.56s in the state junior championships last month, but we will have to ignore it for the time being at least since there is no confirmation). Relatively unknown girl, a huge jump from 12.09 to 11.55 (or 11.56s), will this kind of improvement be sustained? Past shows it won't be, especially if the athlete is from Haryana.
[The long discussion on doping, resulting from the final sentence of this post, is now moved to the Doping thread ... Mod, Jay]
Pretty amazing for Neeraj to be in the list. A couple of the other nominees are both world champions and world record breakers, so Neeraj has tough competition. But being nominated itself is a tremendous honor!
. I think the part of me that did not celebrate this record is more from waiting for other shoe to drop rather than times relative to rest of the world. I do see Prasen point about the title of being a fastest indian could open some doors.
