The Hindu : Sport / Athletics : Anju to miss Stockholm, London Grands Prix

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jul 22, 2006

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Sport - Athletics

Anju to miss Stockholm, London Grands Prix

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Long jumper Anju George has decided to skip the DN Galan Super Grand Prix in Stockholm (July 25) and the Norwich Union Super Grand Prix in London (July 28), practically ruling out her chances of figuring in the World athletics finals to be held in Stuttgart in September.

According to her coach Bobby George, Anju was not yet ready to tackle major international competitions, recovering as she was from a heel injury suffered prior to the Doha Super Grand Prix in May.

Anju had indicated earlier that she would not be concerned about her world ranking this season and would be concentrating mainly on her preparations for the Asian Games in Doha in December. She had not been in the best of form either and the injury just added to her woes, further upsetting her schedule.

The qualification for the World athletics finals (September 9-10) this season is based on points gathered on the World athletics tour (Golden League, Grand Prix and Permit meetings) and Area Permit meetings. The top seven athletes (11 athletes for races of 1500m and over) in each event, based on the Tour points, along with a wild card entry each, would be eligible to compete.

Anju, who won the silver at last year's World athletics finals, is currently ranked joint 18th on the WAT table with six points earned from her seventh-place finish in Doha. Russian Tatyana Lebedeva, with 42 points, tops the list followed by Commonwealth Games champion Bronwyn Thompson of Australia at 32 points. World No. 1 Tatyana Kotova of Russia is placed alongside Anju at joint 18th.

Ranking points

Though the Asian Grand Prix meets were also listed for ranking points, Anju has not been credited with any for her second-place finish at Bangalore and Pune. It was not immediately known whether the IAAF had taken the Asian GP series off the ranking bracket.

Till last season, qualification for the finals was based on the overall world rankings. Anju is currently ranked seventh in the world, but she would slip considerably through the last week of this month and August when her points from last year's DN Galan and the Helsinki World championships would drop off.

Anju plans to compete in the World Cup to come off in Athens on September 16 and 17. The Kerala jumper, the only Indian athlete to win a medal in the World championships, has also plans to compete in the Golden League meet in Brussels (August 25), Grand Prix meet in Rieti, Italy (August 27) and the ISTAF Golden League meet in Berlin (September 3) in case she is able to get her entry accepted by these meet organisers.

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