Behind all euphoria and dark truth, India set for stiff competition at IAAF World Championships in Athletics

It’s the heydays of Indian athletics on the world stage. Having put India on top of the medals tally at the recently concluded Asian Athletics Championship in Bhubaneshwar, our athletes have made a good name for our country and picked up accolades along the way. They beat out tough competition from the likes of China, Japan, Bahrain and Qatar. With the announcement of the full 24-member strong team for the World Championship, we hope that this sends out a strong message to the world and to our budding trainees that the sun of Indian Athletics is about break through the clouds behind which it has lingered so long.

As they prepare to flex their hamstrings and stretch their limbs, grab a bucket of popcorn and head to the nearest couch to catch the 16th edition of this marquee event starting in London from 4th August. Second, only to the Olympics, the World Athletics Championships is the grand arena of performance which is the make-or-break opportunity for participants from all over the world. Featuring as many as 22 events across the genre of track-and-field to discuss throws, the event has given us the likes of Sergei Bubka and Allyson Felix. This also promises to be an exciting affair as we see the legendary Usain Bolt take to the tracks for the possibly the last time. Britons hope to see a grand finish from the great Mo Farah on his last run.

Usain Bolt in his trademark pose after winning the 100m during the IAAF Diamond League Meeting Herculis in Monaco this month.

For this important bicentennial event, India has submitted a squad consisting of 14 male athletes participating in eight disciplines along with 10 female athletes participating in six events. They are accompanied by a 13-member team of coaching staff and physios to London.

What are India’s chances this year?

Coming off the back of a spectacular performance at the Asian Championships, it is not unreasonable to expect our athletes to put in an impressive performance. Yet, there is a word of caution. Considering the nascent state of athletics in India and the kind of half-hearted support, both financial and infrastructural, that they receive round the year, it would be unwise to break their backs with an unrealistic burden of hope. Even for a developing country like India, which aims to be a superpower within a few decades, there is little to no support for sports, especially athletics, at the grass root level.

Most of those who are making a mark still have to pay out of their pocket to receive world class training abroad. But this scenario is gradually changing. So there is a glimmer of hope. And this little ray of hope is all we can struggle to hold on to as we look forward to London.

Neeraj Chopra is the great big hope of resurging Indian athletics. The reigning world junior champion in discuss throw hopes to carry forward his form into the senior edition of the championship. The world record holder is off to good start this year with a meet-record setting performance in Bhubaneshwar, following them up with good performances in the Diamond League events in Paris and Monaco. The 14th ranked young prodigy has a season best of 85.23m.

Run-up to the selections

Behind all this euphoria and hope lingers some dark truth of our forgotten athletes. Shock, outrage, and controversy followed the announcement of the final list of participants. Take the case of PU Chitra from Kerala. The young runner failed to find a place in the squad heading to London in spite of being one of the best in her event in our country. Her story unfolds something like this: the IAAF rules state that an athlete secures automatics qualification, subject to approval from the national selection committee, to the World Championships through two possible routes:

i) Championship winners at the continental level.

ii) Beating the qualification time set by IAAF for each event at some official event.

Now Chitra is the gold medal winner at the just concluded Asian Championships in Bhubaneshwar, which qualifies her for the World Championship. However, based on her performance at the Inter-state Games held at Guntur, the national selectors barred her from participating at the World Championship citing that her timings were not near enough the qualification timings set by the IAAF. This was the same pretext under which the national selection committee has excluded two more Asian Gold Medal winners from the 24-member squad: veteran 3000m steeplechaser Sudha Singh and Ajay Kumar Saroj (1500m).

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan is backing state athlete PU Chitra.

PTI has quoted national selection committee chairman G.S.Randhawa, ‘We have not named some athletes who have won gold in Asian Championships because their performances were well below the IAAF World Championships qualifying standards.’

This begets two important questions:

1) The inter-state competition held in Guntur was supposedly a final chance for athletes, without direct qualification, to set times under the bar set by IAAF, and hence qualify for the World Championship. Why would the results of such an event be the measuring stick for athletes, who had already achieved qualification, and that too, with a gold-winning performance nonetheless?

2) The IAAF has provisions for each participating nation to send a maximum of 36 athletes as part of the contingent to the Championship. Given that we are sending a lesser number of participants, would we rather have our champions warm benches back home rather than send them out to gather essential exposure? What makes it all the more curious is that, the entire expense of sending the squad lies, not with the AFI (Athletics Federation of India), but with the central government. This would have been a premium opportunity to gather experience on the world stage.

Given that we are already sending a somewhat weakened squad, due to the absence of Asian gold-winner Manpreet Kaur owing to failed dope tests, it remains to be seen whether this decision turns out to be a mistake we can afford to make.

The Kerala High Court as well the Kerala CM have now taken up Chitra’s case. As her coach puts it, ‘Our aim of moving the court is that no athlete in future is meted out injustice like Chitra.’

According to the latest ruling of the Kerala HC, they have asked the AFI to include Chitra’s name in the squad list and send her to the London meet. Accordingly, the Cabinet Minister for Sports, Mr. Vijay Goel has asked to formally give Chitra the requisite clearance. But, as is the norm for athletics in India, the decision, though in her favor, comes too little, too late. This is so because regardless of the outcome, the deadline for squad submission is well past.

Odisha sprinter Dutee Chand had luck on her side after she was invited by the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) to participate in the the women’s 100m in spite of missing the qualification mark of 11.26 seconds, thanks to her season’s best of 11.30 seconds which came at the third leg of the Indian Grand Prix held at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on May 15.

Keeping all of this at the back of our mind, we turn our eyes to London with hope in our hearts that our athletes do us proud, and that the loudest cheers in London streets belong to the Indians.

Full Squad:

Men:

20km walk: Irfan Kolothum Thodi, Devender Singh and Ganapathi Krishnan

400m & 4x400m relay: Muhammed Anas Yahiya

5000m & 10000m: Lakshmanan Govindan

110m hurdles: Siddhanth Thingalaya

Marathon: Gopi Thonakal

Javelin Throw: Neeraj Chopra and Davinder Singh Kang

4x400m Relay: Arokia Rajiv, Amoj Jacob, Kunhu Mohammed, Mohan Kumar Raja, Sachin Roby.

Women:

100m: Dutee Chand

20 km walk: Khushbir Kaur

400m & 4x400m relay: Nirmala

Heptathlon: Swapna Barman

Marathon: Monika Motiram Athare

Javelin Throw: Annu Rani

4x400m relay: Poovamma Raju Machettira, Jisna Mathew, Anilda Thomas, Jauna Murmu, Anu Raghavan.

Team officials & coaches:

Vishal Kumar Dev, IAS, (team leader); Tony Daniel (team manager), Radha Krishnan Nair (deputy chief coach), Galina Bukharina (coach), PT Usha (coach), Surendra Singh(coach), Alexander Arstybashev (coach), Raj Mohan (coach), Bahadur Singh Chauhan (coach), Anju Bobby George (coach/observer), Arun Mendiratta (team doctor), Pawan Kumar (male masseur), Kinga Lidia (female masseur)