Indian Athletics Thread ...

[depleter]

Opens season with a Gold @ 83.18m. Doesn't seem on par for the Tokyo, but hoping it's just a warmup with better throws to come in next month.

The wind was pretty heavy there, may be it too had some effect.

[arjun2761]

The second placed local guy threw 52+ against a season best of 64+, so Neeraj's 83+ against a seasons best of 88+ could indicate that he is in decent form....

[sameerph]

Last week at Indian GP, 4 Indian national records were broken, 1 of them was Asian record in mens shoput by Tajinderpal Singh Toor with 21.49M and he also qualified for Tokyo olympics.

There were also national records from Dutee Chand in womens 100M , Kamalpreet KAur in womens discuss and our womens 4x100M relay.

Kamlapreet had already got the qualfication mark for Tokyo while Dutee and relay teams were just short.

Looks like as usual our athletes are raising there level just before olympics. Spinach in play ?

[indiansportsfan]

Also Hima Das ran 22.88 in 200m, which is her fastest time to-date (improving from 23.21) and very close to qualifying time of 22.80. If she could improve 0.33s in 3 months, nothing to say she can't improve 0.08s in 1 week

[prasen9]

Things are not always that linear.

[PKBasu]

Neeraj Chopra won gold at his next event in Sweden too, but with a poor throw of less than 81m. This was, however, in extremely blustery conditions. He will be competing at an event in Finland in a couple of days time. Two golds in two meets is a great start to his run to the Olympics.

[prasen9]

How was the competition? Of course, two golds is better than choking and not getting them. But, I want to know if he beat anyone who may be an Olympic contender. Thanks for the news.

[srini]

How was the competition? Of course, two golds is better than choking and not getting them. But, I want to know if he beat anyone who may be an Olympic contender. Thanks for the news.

In both competitions he was expected to take Gold as there was no one who could throw any where near he does. He competes with his real rival Johannes Vetter only today in Finland. Barring any surprises Vetter will take Gold here, just hoping that Neeraj can bridge the gap with him. Vetter has been consistently throwing beyond 90m this year, there was only one throw he did below 90m. Where as Neeraj has never thrown beyond 90m.

[sameerph]

Neeraj finished third with a throw of 86.76M in Finland meet. As expected, Vetter threw past 93 mtr, his fifth consecutive throw past 90 mtr. He is a clear favourite for gold at Tokyo.

But, 2012 Olympic champion Walcott threw past 89 mtr to get silver.

I think Neeraj will need to go past 90 at Tokyo to win a medal.

[SaniaFan]

I think he is now 4th in the list of best javelin throws this year.

[srini]

An improved performance by Neeraj. Keshorn Walcott was a prodigy who won Gold in Olympics at an age of 19 and the bronze in 2016 and again brought himself to contention in 2021. usually throwers mature with age and primed when in upper 20s and lower 30s.Neeraj is the youngest @23 in the top lists and primed for 2024.For Tokyo while Vetter is favorite to take Gold, other medals are open for a wide field and up for grabs, so as Sameer said a throw of 90m is needed to be in medal contention.

[sameerph]

This is a nice article about long jumper Shaili Singh who did very well yesterday at inter state. Her coach of Robert George, husband and coach of Anju Bobby George.

https://indianexpress.com/article/sport ... t-7377475/

[jaydeep]

Good to see Neeraj is getting his rhythm back.

[sameerph]

With a throw of 63.72 mtr, Seema Punia qualifies for her 4th Olympics in women's discus.

[prasen9]

I think to understand Neeraj's form, etc. one way is to see if he did any upsets. He got 3rd and is world #18. Was there anyone else ranked above him who he beat?