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Focus on women’s 4x400m relay team

K.P. Mohan

The struggle to qualify shows where Indian athletics stands

At the beginning of the year, everyone connected with athletics in the country was upbeat about India’s chances in the sport in the Beijing Olympics. The most optimistic of the lot, including the Sports Authority of India (SAI), forecast medals.

The women’s 4x400m relay team (Mandeep Kaur, Chitra Soman, S. Geetha, Sini Jose, M.R. Poovamma and K. Mridula) was the focus of attention among experts.

The relay team barely managed to qualify for the Olympics, coming 15th in the list after an unbelievable 3:28.29 in the second leg of the Asian Grand Prix series at Korat, Thailand. The top 16 teams qualified for the Olympics.

Despite the mediocre performance of the team, except that at Korat, there is still talk of the relay team bringing home a medal from Beijing.

Since Indian athletics has seen remarkable improvements within very short period in recent years, it would be illogical to dismiss such forecasts.

However, if current form and world standards are assessed, it will be a surprise if, barring Anju George and Vikas Gowda, any Indian makes the final in the Olympics.

Pathetic

Though the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) was expecting a larger number of athletes to achieve the qualification standards, only 17 including six relay runners, made the grade eventually.

The struggle to reach qualification standards itself showed where Indian athletics stood.

A 51-day training stint in England could get a Beijing ticket for middle distance stars such as Chatholi Hamza, Sajeesh Joseph, Rajeev Ramesan and Sinimole Paulose.

Distance runners Surendra Singh and Preeja Sreedharan did well to make the grade, both clocking National records during the European stint, but they would not be expected to do anything out of the ordinary in the Olympics.

Triple jumper Renjith Maheswary, explaining his poor form as a deliberate ploy to keep his best in reserve, had shown his decline towards the end of last season and he slumped to 16.30 at the end of the Asian Grand Prix circuit this year.

He had jumped a sensational 17.04 in Guwahati last year. Defending Olympic triple jump champion Christian Olsson of Sweden is out with an injury, but 35 others have crossed 17 metres this season.

Best bet

The best bet for a shot at the final in men’s section will be discus thrower Vikas Gowda. The U.S.-based Karnataka youngster has not really lived up to expectations, but the fact that he missed qualifying for the final narrowly in Athens, finishing 14th overall, and had a fourth-place finish in the New York Grand Prix in May this year with a 63.84, should raise hopes for at least a place in the final.

Among women, in the original medal calculation of the federation, discus thrower Seema Antil and heptathlete J.J. Shobha figured quite high, apart from the relay team. Seema did not make the qualification standard. Shobha, 11th in the last Olympics, Pramila Aiyappa and Susmita Singha Roy crossed 6000 points to join the Beijing-bound team.

At 6072, Pramila is only 32nd in the world lists for the season; Shobha (6043) and Susmita (6027) are 37th and 40th respectively. The top mark by U.S. woman Hyleas Fountain is 6667.

Women’s discus had provided three contestants last time. This time there are only two, Krishna Poonia and Harwant Kaur. Poonia’s early form, after a training regimen in the U.S. under former Olympic champion Mac Wilkins, was encouraging. But she fell from a high of 63.41 at Salinas to 56.77 in the last leg of Asian Grand Prix in Hanoi.

Harwant Kaur, in the meantime, also slumped to 58.50 after her Madurai feat of 61.09 that helped her qualify. She had missed making the final very narrowly four years ago but had done nothing beyond the ordinary since then.

That leaves us with Anju George and the women’s 4x400m relay team to discuss. Anju, being featured separately in these columns, will have to draw on her experience if she has to realise her ambition of winning an Olympic medal.

The relay team, barring the Korat performance, has hovered around the 3:32-3:33 mark.

It will require around 3:27-3:29 to make the final. The top five cracked 3:22 at the Osaka World championships final.

Unless a “crash course” in Malaysia, where the team has been training, does wonders, it is difficult to imagine the Indian relay quartet making an impact in Beijing.

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