With a floundering old guard, India will bank on new faces at the Asian Athletics Championship

As local favourite and birthday girl Srabani Nanda leads the Indian contingent during the opening ceremony of the Asian Athletics Championships in Bhubaneshwar, the city finds itself in the midst of a sporting extravaganza with the promise of many more to come.

The capital city of Odisha is hosting the AAC for the third time in India and it will be the 22nd edition overall, after Delhi in 1989 and Pune in 2013. With the Kalinga Stadium also set to host the Hockey World League final in December this year, followed by the Hockey World Cup in 2018, these are indeed good times for sports-loving locals.

The stadium, a multipurpose one set in the heart of the city in the locality of Nayapalli, was home to Hockey India League side Kalinga Lancers. It has undergone a complete face-lift in just 90 days, with synthetic tracks, practice arrangements and lighting systems having been built, which left even the International Association of Athletics Federations President Sebastian Coe impressed.

A change of guard

A total of 800 athletes from 46 countries are expected to show up in Bhubaneshwar for the bi-yearly extravaganza, with the Indian contingent at 95, one of the largest. At the last Championships in Wuhan, China, in 2015, the Indians had finished a commendable third in the overall standings, with 13 medals overall, four of which were gold and five silver. Only China with 15 gold medals and Qatar with seven had finished ahead of India. A gold at the Asian Athletic Championship guarantees a berth in the World Championship.

This time around, though, two of the four gold medallists from Wuhan are missing in action: shot-putter Inderjeet Singh is provisionally suspended for doping, and 3,000-metre Steeplechase racer Lalita Babar has taken time off after her recent wedding. Babar will also skip the upcoming IAAF World Championships.

From the two remaining gold medallists, only Tintu Luka looks in competitive shape, but her season-best of 2:03:59 is well below her 2015 winning effort of 2:01:53 in the 800-metre race. Discus thrower Vikas Gowda could only manage 57.79 in the trials held by the Selection Committee recently and he will need a massive improvement to win a medal here. The qualification mark for the discus throw event at the World Championship remains a distant dream at 65 metres.

The medal hopefuls

While the old guard may be floundering, India may find new athletic heroes to look up to. Neeraj Chopra is the nation’s best bet for a gold medal. The 19-year-old is the junior world record holder in the javelin throw and finished a more-than-credible fifth at the recently concluded Paris Diamond League.

Chopra’s seasonal best of 85.63 metres is not the highest among the competitors, though, as Chinese Taipei’s Chao-Tsun Cheng’s 86.92 metre throw at Jiaxing, China, in April means that they are neck and neck. On the one previous occasion that Cheng and Chopra have squared off, at the Asian Grand Prix earlier this season, the Chinese Taipei athlete defeated the Indian for the gold.

The 27-year-old MR Poovamma won the silver in the 400 metres last time around but Nirmala Sheoran (51.28 seconds) and 18-year-old Jisna Matthew (52.65) have clocked faster times than the Mangalorean this year. The women’s 4X400 metres relay team looks a formidable bet for a podium finish and may go one better than their silver medal in Wuhan.

Annu Rani’s 61.86 metre javelin throw in Patiala ensured that she qualified for the Worlds, but 27-year old Li Lingwei of China, with a seasonal best of 64.10, will start as firm favourite. Tejinder Pal Singh’s seasonal best of 20.40 metres tops the group competing for the shot put gold, as Kazakhstan’s Ivan Ivanov is expected to run him close. In order to qualify for the Worlds, however, Tejinder will have to throw 20.50 or better.

Gong Lijiao, who took the gold at the women’s shot put in Paris has skipped the event. The Chinese’s absence gives hope to Manpreet Kaur, who has the best record among the competitors there. The 27-year-old should take gold, if she sticks to the standards that she has set this season.

Muhammad Anas, who holds the Indian record for the 400 metres with 45.32 and four-time National Champion Sudha Singh, appearing in the Steeplechase competition after an extended break (on account of swine flu) post the Rio Olympics, appear to be definite medal hopefuls. Nayana James, the long jumper, had an entry mark of 6.55 metres, the second best in the field, and the 21-year-old is one to look out for.

Other former Asian Championship medallists in the fray include long-jumper Ankit Sharma, double medallist from Wuhan Lakshmanan Govindan, 800-metre runner Jinson Johnson and heptathlon competitors Liksy Joseph and Purnima Hembram, but all of them have below-par seasonal bests. They will need to significantly improve to stay in medal contention this time around.

Local interest is high

Half of India’s tally in 2015 came from Track events. But with a deeper field this time, a part of the onus to bring back track medals fall on local favourites Dutee Chand, Amiya Kumar Mallick and Srabani Nanda.

Dutee had successfully challenged the IAAF’s stance on hyperandrogenism (high testosterone levels in women). However, a recently-released document by the world athletics governing body on the eve of the Championship, which concludes that the condition aids female athletes, is bad timing for Dutee and her team.

Mallick, who has a best of 10.51 this year, set in Patiala during the Federation Cup, is a long way off Asia’s fastest man Femi Ogunode of Qatar, who holds the Asian records for both the 100 metres and the 200 metres. He is the defending champion in both categories. Qatar won six of the 10 individual track golds in 2015 and will be the contingent to beat once again in Odisha.

Nanda, who won a bronze in the 200 last time around, will face stiff competition from Kazakhs Olga Safronova and defending champion Viktoriya Zyabkina. These three will make sure that local interest is as high as ever, as India look to improve on their Wuhan 2015 performance.