Stage set for Asia’s second best
ASIAN ATHLETICS Best from the continent have skipped the meet to compete in global events ahead of the Worlds
some of the top global athletes skip the four-day Asian Athletics Championships that kick starts at Kalinga Stadium on Thursday, it seems the continental meet is for the rest.
Take for example Qatar’s high jumper Mutaz Essa Barshim, who has set his sights on surpassing 2.45m, Cuban Javier Sotomayor’s world record that hasn’t been touched since 1993. Mutaz’s personal best is 2:43m. Therefore, his primary focus this season is the August 4-13 World Championships in London, and not the Asian meet.
He has been participating in the highly competitive Diamond League to polish his skills.
In the build up to London, the Qatari Olympic silver medallist broke the over decade-long Bislett Games record of 2.38m in Oslo on July 15. Going by his current performance, he has already established himself as the leading jumper with at least five best performances of the 2017 season.
Like Barshim, top athletes from Japan too aren’t competing on Indian soil. In fact, Japan is not fielding its top three sprinters in the 100m dash.
Presence of top athletes is certainly a big attraction, nonetheless it’s one of the important meets for Indian athletes.
Men’s 100m national champion Amiya Mallick sees it as a big opportunity to earn a passage for the Worlds as all winners here will get direct entry. For those who can’t win gold medal, there is still an opportunity to achieve the entry standard of 10.12 secs.
‘’Since there are few exposure trips for sprinters in the country, I just want to go all out and do something exceptionally good in front of the home crowd as it is the last chance for me to qualify for London,’’ he said.
Athletics Federation of India (AFI) secretary general C K Valson blamed the rescheduling of the competition for some of the best skipping it. ‘’The Asian meet was supposed to be held in June. But it was shifted, and it might be one of the reasons why some big names aren’t competing.’’