Indian Athletics Thread ...

[sameerph]

Priyanka Goswami and Akshdeep Singh earn India a Paris Olympics 2024 quota in Mixed Marathon Race Walking Relay!!

Indian duo clocked 3:05:03s to finish 18th at the World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships.

Looks like a new event introduced in this olympics.

[Mugundan]

We don't really have much except Chopra anyway. And, that too is in threat from a 20-year old German. But, I think Chopra will still hold.

I doubt whether the 20-year-old German would be a threat to Chopra or anyone else. Chopra's threat may come from the usual quarters, Czech, Germans (not exactly the new sensation), Grenada, Pakistan etc. The Indian looks unbeatable in any conditions, though.

[Sin Hombre]

We don't really have much except Chopra anyway. And, that too is in threat from a 20-year old German. But, I think Chopra will still hold.

Murali reaching the finals of an Olympics would be a better achievement than some of the doubles performances in tennis challengers we celebrate on here. His injury is a shame.

[jayakris]

^^ True, but we do celebrate any top-8 performance at Olympics, especially in athletics, much more than we celebrate the challenger doubles titles! It is just that we can do it only every four years

[prasen9]

I guess to each his or her own. I would be happy but I would not celebrate anything other than a medal at the Olympics. To me, no great loss. Yes, a doubles challenger win or a singles challenger win or a slam 2nd round win are great but again no great shakes. These are things we are happy for in that week and then don't really care that much. For the Olympics, I really care for things that we will remember for the ages. And, that is the medals.

[arjun2761]

But we do celebrate our Athletics Olympic finalists. Our “legendary” Milkha Singh and PT Usha were 4th in their Olympic events and those like GS Randhawa and Sriram Singh were also quite well known for making Olympics finals.

[Mugundan]

At least for Paris, a place in an athletics final would need to be acknowledged (Barring Neeraj Chopra's since we expect at least a medal if not the gold). An entry into the final is rare in the Olympics. A top-4 finish would be tragic but again worth more celebration.

[prasen9]

Like I said, I would be happy and maybe even remember. Okay, a top-4 is noteworthy. So, I did celebrate Milkha and Usha - well Usha because Milkha was before my times. But, that was then. Now we have a gold medal winner. I understand that you all will celebrate. Maybe I will join too. But, I don't really celebrate top-8 in athletics. As I said, to each her or his own.

[jayakris]

I certainly celebrate top-8 at Olympics. In fact, I was keeping a count of the number of top-8 finishes at the last few Olympics, as it is a better measure of overall improvement in sports for India.

[jayakris]

By the way, any news on Shaili Singh? Has she been improving? Sometime back, maybe a year or more ago, I had said that she needed to get a better coach than the unproven Bobby George and that I would be happy if Bobby made me eat crow. Is she getting better, and should I look for crow? (Has she qualified for Olympics, or will she?)

[jayakris]

^^^ I found my post. It was about 3 years ago. I didn't think it was that far back. Here is what I said and Mugu's response.

viewtopic.php?p=4434276&sid=6b263d763bf ... 4#p4434276

She is still at least 3 or 4 years away from peak performance years for long jumpers, but I wonder if she is showing signs of improvement or plateauing.

[sameerph]

Till last April-May, Shaili was showing great progress, jumped a big 6.76M in April in India and than 6.65M in May in Japan. But, since than has gone down. Jumped 6.48M in Asian games to finish 5th. Not yet qualified for Olympics.

I read today only she is participating in some event in India. Lets see how it goes.

[Sin Hombre]

She jumped 6.52 which isn't good enough.

Spinach Chitravel with a 17.12 in the triple jump.

Manu DP with a 81.91 in the javelin which is below the qualification mark for the Olympics.

[jayakris]

[sameerph]

Currently Shaili seems stuck between 6.40 and 6.55M although she has gone above that only a couple of times last year. Automatic qualification standard is very high for Paris at 6.86M which requires breaking Anju's national record. Do not think Shaili is ready to do that so soon. So, her best chance for qualification is thru world ranking route. She is currently #30 in world rankings which may prove good enough as there are 32 spots in each event ( including automatic qualifiers).