NATIONAL INTER-STATE ATHLETICS | Eyeing a Paris ticket, India’s top athletes gear up one last time

Top Indian athletes compete for Paris Olympics qualifications at the 63rd National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championships.

With qualifications for the Paris Olympics on the line, several top Indian athletes will hope to make the most of their last chance over the next four days at the 63rd National inter-State senior athletics championships, starting here on Thursday.

Barring Neeraj Chopra, almost every Indian athlete will be in action at the Tau Devi Lal Stadium, with some having more at stake than others, none more so than the jumpers who have been off-colour all through the season.

On Wednesday evening, the track and field was packed with participants, local regulars and even some kids running around as the organisers scurried to get things in place. The big names — Hima Das, the men and women quartermilers, and the sprint stars Animesh Kujur, Tejas Shirse and Gurindervir Singh — meanwhile went about getting into rhythm for their respective events.

The biggest spotlight will be on the 4x400m mixed relay team — the men and women have respectively already qualified. The team needs to finish in 3:11:87 or less to make sure it is in the top-16 in the qualifying rankings, and the Athletics Federation of India is hopeful of making the cut.

“We need international participation to be considered legible and so have requested the Sri Lankan and Maldives teams to participate,” AFI president Adille Sumariwalla said on the eve of the competition.

Among other big names, the AFI hopes to get one more qualifier in javelin and see the triple jumpers Abdulla Aboobacker (21st) and Praveen Chitravel (24th) improve on their performances.

Thirty-two spots are available in each event, with hurdler Jyothi Yarraji and javelin thrower Annu Rani expected to make the cut. Others, including high jumpers Sarvesh Kushare and Tejaswin Shankar and women long jumper Shaili Singh, will have to get their season’s bests and hope to breach the qualifying marks.