13th Federation Cup National (Sr.) Athletics Championship 2007
May 10-13, Salt Lake stadium- Kolkata
(Final Selection trials for Asian Championship 2007)

Preview of Men’s events

Men 100m

In the absence of National record holder Anil Kumar, Sammer mon (10.66s) of Army, winner of Indian Grand Prix Patiala is expected to carry forward his unbeaten run in 2007. He will have to face Vilas Neelgund (10.42s) of Karnataka who is a tough challenger to beat. Former champion (2001) Sandeep Sarkaria (10.40s) of ONGC, is returning after series of injuries and family calamites where he lost his brother Sunny Sarkaria in February 2007 in road accident. Rahamatulla Mulla (10.72s) of host West Bengal will make most of the home conditions to beat experienced sprinters.  

Men 400m

One lap race for men at Federation Cup is expected to be the hottest event of the championship. K M Binu (45.48s), National record holder is raring to go his familiar territory of sub 46 timings in one lap race. Season leader and Services champion Sarish Paul (46.77s) will put serious challenge to group of runners who came back from South Africa training camp. Junior record holder Virendra Kumar Pankaj of UP has gained confidence after Patiala Grand Prix. Ace hurdler Joseph Abraham of CRPF is in good shape and will also attempt sub 46 race. We may revisit 1998 Open national race where Paramjit Singh run superb sub 46 race to set National record. This time it will be between K M Binu of Kerala and defending champion Bhupinder Singh of ONGC (45.84s), both had gone sub 46 in their career.

Men 800m

Absence of Ghamanda Ram will make way for another army mens C. Hamza and Francis Sagayaraj. Fracis has 1:48.50 to his credit while Hamza, specialist in 1500m will use his slow-fast tactics to outclass Francis. Sajeesh Joseph of Kerala and P. Trinath, talented junior runner from Andhra will make this race more interesting.

Men 1500m

It could be cake walk for C. Hamza as his favourite rival Pritam Bind of ONGC is reported to opt out of the event due to injury. Ravinder of Delhi who has gained experience of competing at senior level last year will help to perform better this time in the most tactful event of middle distance.

Men 5000m, 10000m

Surender Singh of Army had a brilliant season in 2006 with National title and sub-14 and sub-30 timings in 5000 & 10000m respectively. Training in Nikoloi’s army of runners at the National camp, Surender had shown good indication of revival of long distance running performances after a gap of a decade. Teammate Sita Ram and Jharkhand’s Kashinath Aswale are expected to have excellent lap strategy to outclass Surender. Race will be held in the wee hours. Kolkata’s cool and less humid morning will help athletes to run faster in 5000m and 10000m. National cross country champion S. Raghunath of Tamilnadu is also in good shape and is expected to run better in company of Surender and Sita Ram. It will be worthwhile to see this tussle for top slot in long distance.

MEN 3000M Steeplechase

Arun D’souza(pb: 8:50.71s), synonymous name with 3000m steeplechase in India and multiple winner of national title in the past decade. Arun who has been ranked number one for more than 7 years is seeking a comeback to his pet event at Kolkata. Ram Bahadur Subba of BSF and Om Prakash of Army along with Bhagwan Diwakar Giri of UP will throw challenge to Arun’s dominance.

Men 110m Hurdles

It will be an exciting contest between National Record holder Naunidh Singh of BSF and National Games Champion P. Muthusamy (14.57s) of Tamilnadu. In 2007, Naunidh has clocked 14.43s in All India Police meet in Delhi while P. Muthusamy had won National Games title in February at Guwahati. Naunidh has an ambition to be member of sub14 club in high hurdles. So far no Indian has gone below 14s barrier in 110m hurdles. Manjunath Godi (14.54s) of Jharkhand and Rohit Hawal (14.37s) are other top athletes in fray for top slot.

Men 400m Hurdles

In 2006, India saw great rivalry in 400m hurdles where Joseph Abraham of CRPF and P Shankar of ONGC went on breaking Sahib Singh’s 8 year old National record of 50.43s. At the end of season Joseph clocked 50.22s to get record under his belt. This war will resume in Kolkata. Kuldev Singh of Punjab Police and Abhishek Pandey of UP will add more competition to this event.

Men High Jump

The Men contest will feature hot duel between Harishankar Roy who is on home advantage over his arch rival Benedict Starly of Tamilnadu. Harishankar Roy (2.25m) is current National record holder while two time winner Bendict is holding championship record with 2.13m. Three years back in Chennai during Senior Nationals, these athletes had demonstrated great competition which resulted into creation of New National record by Harishankar Roy.  Roy was down due to back injury in 2005 and made comeback in 2006 with Asian Grand Prix wins in Bangalore and Pune with 2006 leading mark of 2.21m while Benedict had done 2.19m at SAF Games 2006 in Colombo.

Men Long Jump

The men's Long Jump promises a heated competition, with the presence of Shiv Shankar Yadav of UP, lone Indian to go beyond 8m in 2006 and talented Bhartender Singh of Haryana (7.54m) who is on high after his win in Indian Grand Prix at Patiala. Promising K J Clinton (7.74m) of Kerala has not been able to produce any massive jump in last two years due to series of injuries although he is confident of a big leap this time.

Men Triple Jump

If anyone can assault at Mohinder Singh Gill’s longest standing Indian record of 16.79m in Triple jump then it must be Amarjeet Singh of Punjab (16.58m) who has Indian all time second best performance to his credit and Triple champion (2002, 2004,2006) in Federation Cup. Amarjeet has always shown early peak in Federation Cup and this time too he is expecting to hit the board for the new record. He is long time member of 16m club (in 2000 he cleared 16.00m) and is raring to join 17m elite club of jumpers. There are two more jumpers, Renjith Maheshwary (16.54m) and National Games 2007 Champion Bibu Mathew (16.32m) from God’s own country, Kerala who are on their way to grab the title of breaker of longest standing record. It will sure turn out to be the best spectacle of the championship at Salt lake stadium.

Men Pole Vault

Defending champion Gajana Upadhaya of Jharkhand will try to complete hatrick of winning the men’s pole vault event. Gajanan is the only Indian to jump above 5m twice in one season and is currently holding the championship record of 5.00m. He will face stiff competition from Jitender of UP and Jaya Kumar of Army.

Men Shot Put

Asian Championship silver medallist Navpreet Singh (19.93m) of Punjab Police who opted out in Patiala Grand Prix is now looking forward to open the season with Kolkata Federation Cup. His wins in 2004 and 2005 at Federation Cup had measured massive 19m plus throws. Navpreet is India’s hopeful athlete for Bejing 2008 Olympics. Navpreet have series of meet to improve his performance before World Championship in Osaka where he has already attained “B” Qualifying mark of 19.70m. Another talented Thrower Ranvijay Singh of Jharkhand who has personal best of 20.26m, is coming back to ring after layoff of more than a year. Sourabh Vij of Delhi has graduated from Junior to senior level is also expected to perform his best.

Men Discus Throw

Defending champion Harpreet Singh (52.78m) of Punjab Police will face classy Amritpal Singh (54.04m) of Punjab has failed to cash on his superb release action in the discus throw. Delhi Punit Vij (51.13m), bronze medallist at Interuniversity is in good shape and is expected to win his first major event.

Men Hammer Throw

It will be an interesting battle to see in the ring of SAI Ground, with Birkiran Singh (67.10m) of Punjab Police , Joginder Singh (66.10m) of Haryana and Harinder Singh (62.10m) of Punjab Police.

Men Javelin Throw

Men’s Javelin Throw has always been an attraction of the Federation Cup. Triple Champion Fazal Ansari (77.84m) has always hurled the javelin beyond 75m mark in Federation Cup, favourite to win the title. Defending champion Anil Kumar will miss the event due to injury. Kolkata has been lucky stadium for Delhi’s Sunil Goswami (74.66m) who had won Interzone Juniors wayback in 1997 with 71.44m throw. Former National Champion Kashinath Naik (73.00) of Army and upcoming Vipin Kasana (72.57m) of Delhi has potential to register big throw.

Men Decathlon

Kerala’s P J Vinod (7382pt) is the choice of the title in the most gruelling event of athletics. In 2006, Vinod had bettered the National Mark of Kulwinder Singh but lost to Jora Singh who set new mark of 7502 pt. But Decathlon is full of uncertainties and this could lead to major upset. Former National Games Champion Mandeep Kumar (6951pt) and Youngster Bhupinder Singh of Rajasthan are other decathletes in contest. 

Rahul PAWAR

Broadcast Partner