Panchkula (Haryana), Jun 26 (PTI) The absence of Olympic javelin throw champion Neeraj Chopra notwithstanding, there will be no lack of star power as the country’s remaining top track and field athletes vie for Paris Olympics berths during the National Inter-State Championships beginning here Thursday.
The championships will serve as the final qualifying event for the upcoming Paris Games where the athletics events begin on August 1. Incidentally, the final day of the four-day championships — June 30 — also coincides with the Olympics qualifying window deadline.
Chopra will skip the championships as there is only a few days gap before the Paris Diamond League on July 7, in which he is set to compete. He competed in the Federation Cup in Bhubaneswar last month, winning a gold.
Last month, Athletics Federation of India (AFI) president Adille Sumariwalla had made it clear that except for Chopra, it will be mandatory for all the other athletes to participate in the National Inter-State Championships to get selected for the Paris Olympics.
AFI rules state that all the athletes will have to participate in the National Inter-State Championships if they have to get selected for major multi-sport events like the Olympics, Asian Games or the Commonwealth Games, unless the federation gives exemption on the request of particular athletes or their coaches.
In the absence of Chopra, the likes of Avinash Sable (men’s 3000m steeplechase), Kishore Jena (men’s javelin throw), Ram Baboo (men’s 20km race walk) and Parul Chaudhary (women’s 3000m steeplechase) — all of whom have booked Paris Games berths by breaching the qualifying standards — will headline the championships.
Other athletes who can book Paris ticket through world ranking quota like Jyothi Yarraji (women’s 100m hurdles), Annu Rani (women’s javelin throw), DP Manu (men’s javelin throw), Tajinderpal Singh Toor (men’s shot put), Jeswin Aldrin (men’s long jump), Praveen Chitravel and Abdulla Aboobacker (both men’s triple jump) have also entered their names.
Toor, an Asian record holder till a few days back, told
Source: PTI News
