It will be tough to achieve the qualification mark in 25 lap races for the Commonwealth Games: National athletics coach

The three finals scheduled for the opening day at Chennai’s National Inter-State Athletics Championships in Tamil Nadu on Friday will only be of academic interest.

The reason: The tough qualification standards in the men's and women’s 10,000m events are virtually beyond the reach of the elite Indian distance runners. The women’s pole vault event is the third final of the first day of the five-day domestic competition.

A national athletics coach from Chennai told Sportskeeda:

“The local weather conditions in Chennai are not conducive to long-distance running at this time of the year. Moreover, there is no competition at the domestic level in the 10,000m race, particularly the women’s category."

According to the same coach, the competitors will only compete for medals. The coach added:

“The qualification standard is very high for Commonwealth Games. I doubt anyone will be able to qualify in the 25 lap race."

While the Birmingham Commonwealth Games qualification time in the men’s 10,000m is 27:30.90 seconds, it’s 31:00.0 in the women’s 25 lap race.

In the past, none of the elite Indian long-distance runners have clocked the qualification time. The national record in the men’s 10,000m event is 28:02.89 clocked by Surendra Singh way back in 2008. The women’s 10,000m record is 31:50.47 set by Preeja Sreedharan in 2010.

This season, the leading Indian men’s 10,000m runner has clocked plus 29 minutes while the best female runner has clocked plus 33 minutes.

The qualification mark in the women’s pole vault for the Commonwealth Games is 4.50m. The leading women’s pole vaulters have not crossed 4.20m in domestic competitions in the past several years.

The Chennai’s National Inter-State Athletics Championships will be the last major domestic competition to achieve qualification for both Commonwealth Games as well as the World Athletics Championships scheduled from July 15 to 24 in Eugene, USA.

Meanwhile, several athletes, including the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Champion in men’s javelin throw, Neeraj Chopra, have already qualified for the Commonwealth Games. Chopra is the defending Commonwealth Games champion.