Quite often, top-level athletes are wary of participation when the season gets off in the summer in India. Mostly they complain about lack of preparations.
This season has been no different. The opening Indian Grand Prix meet here last Tuesday saw quite a number of leading athletes staying away or watching from the sidelines. Some of the events had to be cancelled because of lack of entries, a phenomenon that is so characteristic in Indian athletics, season after season.
Injuries being part and parcel of the sport, a number of athletes do have legitimate excuses to skip meets that are planned to help them build up towards the more important championships ahead. But the overall lack of enthusiasm is baffling. Hopefully, there should be a more enthusiastic participation in the second leg of the Indian Grand Prix here on Saturday.
Given the prospects of figuring at the highest level in the sport in about three months from now, by way of participation in the World championships, not forgetting the Asian championships that will come off in July, the paucity of even average marks in a majority of the events in the opening meet was a surprise.
Barring Mayookha Johny's 13.65m in triple jump, still well short of the 14.10m qualification standard for the Worlds, and Shamsher Pratap Singh's 7.77m in long jump, GP-1 produced little.
The men's 20km walk, in which Gurmeet Singh bettered the National record, was a non-GP event, originally planned as a trial for the walkers and then brought into the competition proper.
The sight of India's top-ranked male sprinters clocking upwards of 10.87s in the 100 metres, revealed the poor preparation in this World championships year. Or can we hope to see a quantum jump from the likes of Abdul Najeeb Qureshi, who clocked 11.18s in one of the races, in the coming months?
Qureshi was the most outstanding sprinter of last season, beginning with a 10.56 in Dhaka in February , timing 10.42s in May and 10.38s in June before climaxing his season with a stunning 10.30s in the Commonwealth Games in October. By November he was down to 10.46s in the Asian Games where he still made the semifinals.
Considering the possibility of India fielding its sprint relay team at the Daegu World championships, the form of Qureshi and that of Shameer Mon (10.87s in the first GP meet) should cause some concern. The relay team qualified on the strength of its splendid 38.89s in the CWG.
The much-hyped women's 4x400m relay team should also come into focus in the coming months since it would be getting ready for the Worlds, having already qualified.
Only Mandeep Kaur, from among the top 400m runners, competed in the first GP, winning in an ordinary 55.97s. Not since 2006 has the Punjab woman clocked a similar timing while winning a medal at the senior National level.
Much will depend on how athletes like A. C. Ashwini, recovering now from an injury, Manjeet Kaur and Sini Jose shape up in the run-up to the Asian and World championships if India is to maintain its reputation in the 1600m relay.
The decision of the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) to conduct dope tests at all major athletics meets this season is a welcome step. With several athletes being caught in the “dope net” in recent months, this was bound to happen.
