Pune:
The picturesque Balewadi Sports Complex looked resplendent against the Baner Hillock, washed clean by the steady drizzle since afternoon. Yet, some 50 odd fans braved the pitter-patter to gather at the warm up ground as Indian quartermiler MR Poovamma went through her drills on the eve of Asian Track and Field Championships, on Tuesday evening.
As the chief coach Bahadur Singh watched keenly from a distance, another coach, N. Ramesh was busy explaining to a group of people how much it depends on the young 400 metres runner to lift the sagging morale of Indian athletics after the doping scandal involving six top female runners threatened to break the backbone of the sport.
“With all top female 400 metres runners including Ashwini and Mandeep being banned for doping, some felt India’s supremacy in Asia in this event would be over,” said Ramesh.
“We were once again able to build a team from the scratch that would be hard to beat in Asia. If Poovamma is our best bet, then equally talented are girls like Nirmala and Anu Mariam Jose.”
Having established herself as the top quartermiler of the country, Poovamma is placed second in the Asian lists for the season with her 52.75 recorded at Fed Cup at Patiala. For the record, No. 1 Japanese Haruka Sugiura, 52.52, is not competing here.
Poovamma should be a strong contender for gold; she had swept the three legs of the Asian Grand Prix series this season. Yulia Rakhmanova of Kazakhstan is expected to be her closest challenger. Gone are the days when India returned home with 10 gold medals from the Asian meet like they did in 1985 in Jakarta.
India are no longer considered an athletics superpower in the continent and in the last meet in Kobe, they managed to win only one gold through triple jumper Mayookha Johny.
Yet, in the 20th edition of the Championship beginning here Wednesday, India, being represented by a record number of 107 athletes, are expected to win a handful of medals. While the hosts have the luxury of naming three participants in each of the 42 events, the fact that as many as 21 events won’t see Asia’s current toppers would also definitely help the athletes from the home country. For being the hosts, India can expect to finish second or third in the medals tally, which has been dominated by the Chinese athletes for nearly 30 years now.
In the next one week, several Indians are expected to finish on the podium — Vikas Gowda (men’s discus), Sudha Singh (women’s 3000m steeplechase), MR Poovamma (women’s 400m), Kumaravel Prem Kumar (men’s long jump), Tintu Luka (women’s 800m), Renjith Maheswary (men’s triple jump) and Krishna Poonia (women’s discus). While all these are gold medal prospects, the likes of Mayookha Johny (women’s long jump and triple jump) and Arpinder Singh (men’s triple jump) are among other medal prospects.
The winners of gold medals in this meet would have the advantage of getting direct qualification for the World Championship in Moscow. Gowda is the top performer of the season among the participants with Iran’s 2012 London Olympic silver medallist Ehsan Hadadi deciding to skip the event in view of the Moscow World Championships in August.
Gowda’s 65.82m effort in April is the season’s second best among Asians after Hadadi’s 66.98m.
In women’s 3000m steeplechase, Sudha Singh is the clear favourite after her 9:45.60 effort in the National Inter-State Championships in Chennai early last month, which is a national record.
In the absence of last edition winner Minori Hayakari of Japan, Sudha’s contest for gold medal is likely to be with Ruth Chebet of Bahrain.
Sudha, the reigning Asian Games gold medallist, had finished second behind Hayakari in the last Asian Championships in 2011 in Kobe.
Krishna Poonia, the Commonwealth Games gold medallist and India’s most famous female athlete would be taking the field without much practice.
“I suffered an injury and could hardly practice after the Chennai nationals. I have to rely more on experience,” she said.
source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, Calcullta-India / Front Page> Sport> Story / by Jaydeep Basu / Wednesday – July 03rd,2013
