Animesh, Sreeshankar, Sachin in focus at Continental Tour meet

A john r. Major facet of staging international sports events is most place rural area athletes delivering success, or being in medal contention. Only weeks earlier, a great example was provided by the Neeraj Chopra Classic. The host who gave his name to the well-attended meet also proved the hottest, his victory proving the icing on the cake.

Elite Indian athletes are no longer left searching for overseas exposure, although India still awaits a genuine star who can rise to compete on the world stage. After almost 15,000 fans turned up at Bengaluru’s Sree Kanteerava Stadium to watch Chopra win the inaugural NC Classic on July 5, a more modest start will be made on Sunday when the Odisha capital’s Kalinga Stadium stages the one-day World Athletics Continental Tour Bronze meet.

Bhubaneswar, a hockey city that hosted the Asian Athletics Championships in 2017, will hope to draw in the crowds and provide the stage for some impressive performances. It can both draw public engagement in track and field and also use the meet as a starting point for India getting to host bigger events.

Around 160 athletes from 17 countries are expected with 17 events scheduled for men and women.

The meet is a chance for Indian athletes to collect vital ranking points as they bid to qualify for next month’s World Athletics Championships in Tokyo. Sachin Yadav, seen as the next javelin hope, will be one who will look to qualify on entry standard (85.50m), having narrowly missed the mark — he threw 85.16m to come second in the Asian Championships in May. The qualification deadline is August 24.

While jumps and throws have been India’s focus for a few years now, sprints and relays are also garnering attention thanks to a group of talented athletes.

Animesh Kujur, Gurindervir Singh, Amlan Borgohain and Manikanta Hoblidhar hold out the hope for Indian sprint to take the next step forward. Competition among them has led to the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay records being rewritten this year.

Leading the pack is Kujur, 22, the national record holder in both the sprints (10.18 secs and 20.32 secs). The Odisha athlete’s ambition is to run 100m under 10 seconds and clock the 200m, his favourite event, under 20 seconds. “It will happen when it has to. It might happen tomorrow, it might happen in 10 years, but an Indian will definitely get there,” Martin Owens, head coach at Reliance High Performance Centre, told HT after Kujur clocked 10.18 in Greece last month.

Kujur was also part of the quartet that set the 4x100m relay record in April. Competing on home turf — he trains at Odisha High Performance Centre while most other sprinters are Mumbai based — he will be the biggest draw. Kujur is expected to only run the 200m, where he’ll be challenged by Borgohain (SB 20.80), another consistent performer. South Korea’s Ko Seung-hwan — his season’s best is 20.45secs — is the second fastest in the field.

There will be no Chopra, but men’s javelin is expected to feature a few 80-plus throwers. Yadav is keen to establish himself as a firm India No.2. The 6’ 5” thrower showed his potential at the Asian meet in Gumi and a home meet can be ideal to excel.

Kishore Jena is not entered, and he as well as Rohit Yadav and Manu DP have fallen away owing to a variety of reasons. At the 2023 Budapest Worlds, India fielded three throwers — Chopra, Manu and Rohit — and it says something about India’s athlete management that barring Chopra, there is a lack of consistency.

Yadav, who sees himself as a steady 85m thrower, will be challenged by Yashvir Singh (PB 82.57m) and Shivam Lohakare (PB 80.95m), the latest entrant to the 80m club. Sri Lanka’s Sumedha Jagath Mudiyanselage and Rumesh Pathirage, both with 85m-plus throws, will be expected to be strong contenders.

Long jump too will be in focus with Murali Sreeshankar building up on his injury comeback. Having missed more than a year following knee surgery, he cleared 8.05m in his first competition on comeback at the Indian Open in Pune last month. On August 3, he won the Qosanov Memorial in Almaty with a leap of 7.94m. His National Record is 8.41m, achieved in 2023.

The younger Jeswin Aldrin though is struggling — he is listed but there are doubts over his participation on Sunday.

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