July 20, 2010: Billed as a ‘test event’ in athletics for the forthcoming Commonwealth Games, the Asian All-Star Athletics competition is expected to provide a serene atmosphere for everyone concerned to prove their mettle at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium (JNS). The two day contest set for July 29 and 30 at the newly furbished tracks on the Indian capital will witness a flurry of star athletes making their strides for the first time since its renovation.
Originally built for the 1982 Asian Games, the state-of-the-art JNS hosts the athletics completion besides opening and closing ceremonies of the Commonwealth Games. The Asian All-Star Athletics will offer a chance, perhaps the only time before the CWG, to test various area of organization prior to the mega sporting extravaganza in October. As much as 250 technical officials and hundreds of volunteers besides scores of other functional area staff will make sure that every area of competition work perfectly.
Mixture of past and future champs
First held in 2004 at Singapore, the Asian All-Star athletics aims to tap new potential among the juniors while the cream of continental champions and medalists had invited to take part. The second edition of the competition was held at Bhopal, two years ago. At least seven champions from Bhopal have figured on the Delhi start-list. This apart, many Asian Games and continental (senior and junior) championship medalists are also on the fray for a podium finish in the next week’s competition.
Strong field in throws
Reigning Asian champion Ehsan Hadadi stood tall and top among the list of participants. The 25 year old Iranian, who holds the continental record of 69.32m and was a world junior champion in 2004, recently recorded a season’s best of 68.45m in Tehran. Vikas Gowda, the Indian thrower living in United States, making a come back with a performance of 63.22m. On the women’s side, Indian throwers are a cut above the rest with Krishna Poonia leading the challenge with a season leading 61.64m recorded in USA while went through a training-cum-competition stint under the watchful eyes of former Olympian Mac Wilkins.
Om Prakash Singh, the current Asian champion, led the list in men’s shot put along with teammates Satyendra Singh and Saurabh Vij. Amin Nikfar from Iran, the Asian Indoor Games victor, together with Grigoriy Kamulya of Uzbekistan is expected to provide the required challenge to the Indians. Iran also fields a strong athlete in women’s shot put. Leyla Rajabi, formerly known as Tatsiana Ilyuschanka of Belarus, brought her adopted country an Asian indoor gold this year. She is a notable athlete to watch as also Yang Yanbo and Liu Jing of China on the shot put circle.
Triple jumpers to the fore
The triple jumpers are ready to grab the attention of fans in both men and women divisions. Renjith Maheswary, the former asian champion would log horn with Kazakhstan’s Yevgeniy Ektov, the bronze medalist in last year’s asian championships at Guangzhou and defending Asian all-star victor in Bhopal. Among women, Alexandra Kotlyarova—who recorded a personal best 14.08m while winning this year’s Asian Grand Prix at Bangalore—is all set to boost Gayathry Govindaraj, the double silver medalist in Commonwealth Youth Games at Pune, two years ago. Gayathry registered 13.58m earlier this month when taking a silver medal in the Asian junior championships at Hanoi, which incidentally the second best ever by an Indian. However she missed a golden chance in 100m hurdles at the Vietnamese capital due to a false start.
Joseph Abraham, the World championship semi-finalist in 400m hurdles at Osaka in 2007, unbeaten in Asian Grand Prix this year is aiming high with better marks at Delhi.
The women’s long jump will be another attraction as multi-event specialist Yulia Tarasova of Uzbekistan, Bhopal champion Priyadarshini of Sri Lanka and the trio of Indian jumpers—M A Prajusha, Mayookha Johny and Reshmi Bose—are all set to make it a memorable contest to remember.
Half-milers steady on tracks
World University Games champion Sajad Moradi, who made another clean sweep of medals in the three-leg Asian Grand Prix on Indian soil earlier this year, is set to rule the tracks once again. Among women, Tintu Luka—the prodigy of legendary Indian sprinter P.T. Usha—is gearing up to set aside the challenge from teammate Sushma Devi and Ayako Jinnouchi of Japan.
The men’s 100m sprint will have the entire podium finishers from 2008 Asian junior championships—Lai Chun Ho and Tsui Chi Ho of Hong Kong and Shehan Abeypitiyage of Sri Lanka. However, the women’s race will have higher standard as both Asian Games gold medalist Guzel Khubbieve of Uzbekistan and Yulia Gavrilova of Kazakhstan—the double gold medalist in the Asian junior championships this year will be challenged by H.M. Jyothi, the bronze medalist in last year’s Asian meet at Guangzhou and winner of 2008 edition of the Asian All-Star meet.
Athletes from about seventeen asian nations are taking part in the two day competitions. (Ram. Murali Krishnan)
Chennai 9 June: Tintu Luka avenged her defeat while facile victory for Krishna Poonia in Asian Grand Prix
India’s Krishna Poonia, currently ranked ninth in the World lists, made it easy when she completes a hat-trick of victories in the Asian Grand Prix series this year. A throw of 59.94m was just enough for her to win the gold. Krishna underwent a training-cum-competition stint at the United States under the watchful eyes of former Olympian Mac Wilkins and achieved a PB of 63.69m while winning a silver medal in a contest at Chula Vista in April this year. She is presently ranked third among the athletes from the commonwealth nations and second in Asia behind the Chinese thrower Li Yanfeng (65.20m). In commonwealth, Australian Dani Samuels (65.84) and South African Elizna Naude (64.49) are ahead of her.
On the contrary, in the women’s 800m, Tintu Luka avenged her defeat to Kazakhstan’s Margarita Matsko with an all out effort. Tintu was second at the first leg in Pune with a time of 2:03.14. But this evening she adopted a typical strategy to win from Kazakh in 2:03.67. It is to be noted that she had achieved a personal best 2:01.61 while winning the national championship at Kochi, less than a month ago. A silver medalist in the last Asian junior championships at Jakarta, Tintu currently ranked 27th in the world and is among the medal probables for both Commonwealth and Asian Games.
Despite their fine form, Indian triple jumper Renjith Maheswary and shot putter Om Prakash Singh have suffered shock defeats.
Renjith fails to find his rhythm and hence could not go beyond 16.60m. China’s Wu Bo had won the top spot with a 16.73m effort.
This evening Om Prakash tossed the iron ball to 18.45m, 19 cm short of China’s Zhang Jun, for the silver.
Among others, Toea Wisil from Papua New Guinea provided a stunner as she halted Guzel Khubbieva’s unbeaten record in the women’s 100m. India’s H M Jyothi took the bronze medal. Indonesian sprinter Surya Agung Wibowo won the men’s crown.
In yet another thrilling race, Wisil’s teammate Nelson Stone edged S K Mortaza of India 47.01 to 47.29 to win the 400m. Iranian half-miler Sajad Moradi improved the meet mark with 1:47.28 in 800m, where Indians Pankaj Dimri and Ghamanda Ram took the next two places.
Malaysian high jumper Lee Hup Wei sailed over 2.27m to equal his career best and to win the event from China’s Wang Chen (2.24). Nikhil Chittarasu of India was third.
India’s Gayathri Govindaraj won a bronze medal in women’s 100m hurdles in which the gold and silver went to Anastasiya Suprunova of Kazakhstan and Indonesia’s Dedeh Erawati respectively.
In Indian Grand Prix, the focus will be on the women long jumpers M A Prajusha, Reshmi Bose and Mayookha Johny who registered personal best jumps in the previous edition at Bangalore. Under favourable conditions one of these trio can take the national record held by Anju Bobby George. Sprinter Manikanda Raj is all set to complete a hat-trick in 200m.
In Asian Grand Prix, the main attraction will be on triple jumper Renjith Maheswary, shot put ace Om Prakash Singh and discus thrower Krishna Poonia, besides the men's 4x100m relay quartet which posted a new national mark in Bangalore.
After a modest start on a rainy and windy day at Pune on June 1, the athletes produced noteworthy marks in the second leg at Bangalore four days later. Contesting on a refurbished track, the sprinters and jumpers took advantage of the altitude aid in Sree Kanteerava Stadium. Renjith touched 17m for the second time on Indian soil to continue his winning streak and Krishna Poonia hurled the disc to cross 61m in yet another time.
The above athletes and relay team are having potential to make a podium finish at the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi and the Asian Games in Guangzhou, later this year.
Om Prakash Singh, who migrated from basketball to athletics hardly few years ago, have registered his personal best 20.02m while winning the Inter-State championships at Chennai last year and went on to win the Asian title at Guangzhou thereafter. He put up a grand show in Bangalore with his 19.80m throw. Both Om Prakash and Krishna Poonia were benefitted by the training stinit they had in the United States.
Middle distance runner Tintu Luka, who skipped the Bangalore leg of the AGP owing to illness will also run at Chennai to avenge her defeat to Margarita Matsko of Kazakhstan in Pune.
The above athletes and relay team are having potential to make a podium finish at the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi and the Asian Games in Guangzhou, later this year.
This apart, the sprint races, men's long jump and the women's triple jump will be expected to fulfill the apetite of sports enthusiasts in Chennai.
