25th National Federation Cup Athletics Competition: Exciting duel on cards as Dutee Chand and Hima Das lineup for women’s 100m dash

Dutee Chand will face Hima Das in the women's 100m race at the 25th National Federation Cup Athletics Competition starting Saturday in Kozhikode.

Olympian Dutee Chand will be coming in fresh from competing in the women's 60m dash last month at the Belgrade World Indoor Championships. 2018 U20 400m champion Hima Das started her season with a 200m race in the second leg of the Indian Grand Prix held last month in Thiruvananthapuram.

19 athletes will line-up for the start of the prelims of the women's 100m event, with both Chand and Das considered to be strong contenders for the title.

Men's entries in the 25th National Federation Cup Athletics Competition

As per the entry list of the Athletics Federation of India (AFI), Das will also participate in the women's 200m event. Karnataka's promising 400m sprinter Priya H Mohan will be one of the 15 participants in the 200m event.

National record holder Amiya Kumar Mallick has pulled out of the National Federation Cup in the men's division due to a lack of fitness.

While speaking exclusively to Sportskeeda, Mallick said on National Federation Cup:

“I’m not fully prepared for the Kozhikode competition, but will compete in domestic events in June."

With Mallick ruled out, all eyes will be on Punjab's young athlete Gurindervir Singh, who had an excellent 2021 season.

It will also be interesting to see if participants will give it their all the season-opener in Kozhikode or reserve their energy for the busier second-half period of 2022.

“Majority of the athletes might not go all out in the first major event of the year in Kerala as their main aim would be to qualify for the Commonwealth Games in July and Asian Games in September,” an athletics coach from Punjab said.

Assam’s Amlan Borgohain will be one to watch in the men’s 200m race. He recently clocked a sub-21 second timer in the IGP 200m race and will be the main contender for the title at the National Federation Cup.

Arokia Rajiv and Amoj Jacob are the favorites to win the title in the men's 400m division. The quarter-mile race has attracted as many as 50 athletes. However, national race record-holder Muhammed Anas will skip the competition as he is on the injury list.

The 2018 Jakarta Asian Games champion in men’s shotput Tajinderpal Singh Toor and middle-distance runner Manjit Singh have also confirmed their entries for the first domestic competition of the year.