Panchkula
The four-day 63rd National Inter State Senior Athletics Championships starting here at Panchkula’s Tau Devilal Stadium from Thursday is important as it will be the last Paris Olympic Games qualifying platform for the Indian athletes, Adille Sumariwalla, president of the Athletics Federation of India said.
“We are hopeful that the national mixed 4x400m relay squad would be able to earn a ticket to the Olympic Games,” the AFI president said on the eve of the national domestic meet. “The members of the mixed 4x400m team have the ability to clock a good time to earn a world ranking of 16 or below.”
While addressing the media here in Panchkula on Thursday, the AFI president said the mixed 4x400m relay team missed a chance to achieve Olympic Games qualification at the World Athletics Relays in Bahamas in the first week of May. “The national mixed 4x400m team narrowly missed a chance at the Asian Relay in Bangkok on May 20,” he added.
According to Sumariwalla, to book a flight to Paris the Indian relay team should rank in top 16. Kenya’s national mixed 4x400m relay team had clocked 3:11.88 seconds on June 15 in Nairobi to secure 16th spot on the world global ranking. “The Indian mixed 4x400m relay team should be able to post a better time than 3:11.88 seconds to stay on course for the Olympics,” he said.
Both men’s 4x400m and women’s 4x400m relays had qualified for the Paris Olympic Games during World Relays in Bahamas.
The AFI president said, the Panchkula national meet will see cream of Indian athletics in action either to achieve automatic qualification criteria set by World Athletics to compete at the Paris Olympic Games or improve their global ranking points.
The competition in Panchkula has overall attracted 752 competitors, including 298 female athletes. “Athletes from Sri Lanka and Maldives will also compete in Panchkula,” Sumariwalla added.
According to the AFI president who is also one of the vice presidents at the World Athletics, it’s all about good planning to be successful in relay events at the world stage. “A right combination is important,” Sumariwalla added. “The Indian men’s 4x400m relay proved themselves at the 2023 Budapest World athletics Championships and should be able to prove again at the Paris Olympic Games.”
In a response to long jumper Jeswin Aldrin decline in performance, the AFI president said, the promising jumper has a bright future. “I’m sure he (Jeswin) will bounce back to repeat his past performance again,” Sumariwalla added. “He (Jeswin) is young and should be able to give good results in future.
Several Indian athletes, including Olympic and world champion Neeraj Chopra and Kishore Kumar Jena, have achieved automatic qualification for the 2024 Olympic in their respective events.
A good number of Indian athletes are also on track to qualify for the Olympics via the World Athletics ranking system.
The AFI is also reworking the domestic calendar from 2025. “We plan to conduct Continental Tour event on Indian soil to give more exposure to the Indian athletes,” Sumariwalla revealed. “We will also have more competitions at the state level to broaden the base in the next calendar year.”
The AFI is also working to tackle the menace of doping in track and field in coordination with all the stakeholders including National Anti Doping Agency (NADA), the AFI president added. “The AFI follows no needle policy and has zero tolerance towards use of performance substances.”
The AFI president also spoke on the advantages of decentralization of national camps post Paris Olympic Games. “Right now there are around 150 athletes in the camp. But when the athletes practice at regional centers, including National Centre of Excellence (NCOE) we expect more than 700 athletes in the regional centres across the country,” he added.