Federation frustration

Sabi Hussain

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 30

The Federation Cup Senior National Athletics Championship had 42 Olympics quota places on offer in the track and field events but only one athlete, Sudha Singh (UP) in the women’s 3000 steeplechase, managed to book the Rio berth in the three-day competition.

As many as 500 athletes participated in the Federation Cup, which concluded at the Jawahar Lal Nehru (JLN) Stadium on Saturday. However, most of the athletes disappointed with their poor performances, falling well short of the Olympics qualification mark in their respective events. 

Dutee Chand, Rajiv Arokiya and Amiya Mallick were unlucky to miss out on the qualification mark by a whisker.

Four national records and six meet records were set, yet only one athlete could secure a Rio berth. Tamil Nadu’s Arokiya set the national record with a timing of 45.47s, which clinched him the gold medal in the men’s 400m. He missed the Olympics qualification standard (45.40s) by 0.07s.

Similarly, Odisha’s Chand set the national record in the women’s 100m by clocking 11.33s. She was unlucky to miss the Olympics qualification mark (11.32s) by one hundredth of a second. 

Her statemate Mallick produced a timing of 10.26s in the men’s 100m semifinal to break the previous national record (10.30s), but he was 0.10s short of the qualification standard (10.16s).

There were new meet records by Annu Rani (women’s javelin throw), Niraj Kumar (men’s hammer throw), Swati Haridas (women’s 10000m) and Jithin Paul (men’s 400m hurdles) among others, but the effort was nowhere close to the qualification mark.

The biggest disappointment of the competition came on the concluding day when triple jumpers Mayookha Johny and Arpinder Singh, along with the men’s 200m sprinter Dharambir Singh, failed to qualify for the Rio Games. Mayookha and Arpinder receive funding from the Target Olympics Podium Scheme (TOPS).

Arpinder finished third (15.99m) — his effort was way short of the Rio qualification standard (16.85m). For the record, the Punjab athlete has a personal best of 17.17m. 

Similarly, Haryana’s Dharambir clocked 21.02s to win the 200m gold but the qualification standard was 20.50s. Mayookha twisted her ankle while completing the jump and had to be stretchered out of the stadium. She will be out of action for at least three weeks. 

No other athlete came anywhere close to the Rio qualification standard. Also, no national record was set on the third day.

The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) doesn’t see any worrying signs in this performance. They say the qualification standards for the Olympics have been raised by the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF), which has made it tougher for the athletes.

The AFI officials cite discus thrower Vikas Gowda as an example, whose event this time has the qualification standard of 65m. 

“Gowda had won India’s first athletics gold at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games with an effort of 63.64m. This time, the IAAF has put the qualification mark at 65m,” a senior AFI official said. “Gowda is among the top 10 discus throwers in the world so he qualified for the Rio Games. But it’s very difficult for the other discus throwers to achieve the mark. In every track and field event, the qualification mark has been set quite high this time.”

Results

WOMEN: (200m): 1 Srabani Nanda (ORI) 23.39, 2 Dutee Chand (ORI) 23.41, 3 HM Jyothi (C BANK) 23.42; (shot put): 1 Navjeet Kaur Dhillon (ONGC) 15.25m, 2 Harkirat Kaur (PUN) 14.37m, 3 Sonal Goyal (DEL) 13.79m; (800m): 1 Tintu Luka (RSPB) 2:01.84, 2 Gomathi Marimuthu (TN) 2:06.45, 3 Shipra Sarkar (WB) 2:06.95; 

MEN: (10000m): 1 G Lakshmanan (TN) 29:57.44, 2 Nitendra Singh Rawat (UK) 29:59.52, 3 Yunus Mohammed (UP) 29:59.69; (200m): 1 Dharmbir Singh (HAR) 21.02,  2 Sanjeet (HAR) 21.32, 3 S Vidyasagar (Navy) 21.33; (triple jump): 1 Renjith Maheswary (KER) 16.47m, 2 Arivu Selvam (SSCB) 16.00m, 3 Arpinder Singh (ONGC) 15.99m