Indian track and field athletes stare at challenging Paris Olympic Games qualification standards

If the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games qualification standard in track and field was tough for Indian athletes, the 2024 Paris Olympic Games will be even more challenging.

“It will be very tough to achieve the automatic qualification time in middle distance races for Indian athletes,” Jinson Johnson, 2018 Asian Games champion in men’s 1500m, told Sportskeeda on Friday.

The World Athletics, the governing body in track and field, announced the Paris Olympic Games qualification standards on Wednesday. Since then, there has been a big debate on the tough qualification system.

To earn automatic qualification in the men’s 1500m event for the 2024 Olympics, an athlete has to clock 3:33.50, while it was 3:35.00 for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games held last year in Japan. By Indian standards, the qualification marks in almost all the events will be hard to achieve.

Olympic champion in men’s javelin throw, Neeraj Chopra, has been the most consistent of all the Indian track and field athletes in 2022. He has surpassed the 2024 Olympic qualification distance of 85.50m in javelin in almost all the international competitions he competed this year.

Apart from men’s javelin, Indian athletes have a chance to achieve the Paris Olympic Games qualification mark in men’s 3000m steeplechase (8:15) and long jump (8.27m).

"It will be tough for Indian male sprinters to crack the qualification time,” Amiya Kumar Mallick, former national record holder in men’s 100m dash, said. “Even qualifying through the world ranking system will be tough for Indian sprinters as they don’t get the opportunity to compete in quality races to improve their rankings.”

Even Indian throwers will have to dig deep to be successful in achieving qualification standards for the 2024 Olympic Games.

“It will be equally tough for Indian female athletes to earn automatic Olympic qualification marks,” Mallick added.

Avinash Sable, Birmingham Commonwealth Games silver medalist in 3000m steeplechase, has a personal best time of 8:11.20. It is better than the Paris Olympic Games qualification time of 8:15.

Murali Sreeshankar, men’s national record holder in long jump, has recorded 8.36m this year and has a good chance of achieving an automatic Olympic qualification mark of 8.27m.

However, athletes can also qualify through the world ranking system.

“Even that will not be an easy task,” Johnson added. “Global ranking could be improved only by running consistently good quality international races.”

The Army’s 31-year-old seasoned middle-distance runner represented India at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games in the men's 800m race. His goal to compete in 1500m at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games was spoiled by a spate of injuries and the COVID-19 pandemic. His best time in 2019 was 3:35.24.

The Army runner is hopeful of achieving good results next year.

“I have joined the national camp in Bengaluru to prepare for the tough 2023 season,” Johnson added.