800 athletes for Federation Cup National Junior Championship
Javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra’s exploits at the IAAF World under-20 athletics championship last year --- he won gold with a world record --will be a big inspiration for the 800-odd athletes, who will begin their quest for medals at the 15th Federation Cup National Junior Championships beginning here on Saturday.
Success, and that too only after achieving the qualifying mark at the three-day championship at the 35th battalion PAC stadium, would help athletes earn a place in the Indian squad for the upcoming IAAF World under-20 athletics championship. The event is scheduled for July 10-15 at Tampere in Finland where matching Chopra’s feat would top their agenda.
Chopra’s world record of 86.48 metre at Bydgoszcz in Poland was the country’s first-ever gold in a world athletics championship.
Prior to this, two Indian women discus throwers – Seema Antil (bronze-2002) and Navjeet Kaur Dhillon (bronze-2014) – had won medals in the world junior championship. Long jumper Anju Bobby George’s bronze in 2003 has been the only medal India has got in the senior world championship.
“Our young athletes can dream of winning gold medals like Neeraj did last year by excelling at the Federation Cup Championship,” secretary, UP Athletics Association, PK Srivastava told HT on Wednesday.
Over 790 athletes have registered for the three-day championship who started reaching Lucknow from Wednesday morning.
“Weather has been improving with every passing day and we are hopeful of a good weather during the championship, where athletes are being provided free AC accommodation for the firsttime in the history of Indian athletics,” said Srivastava.
“The meet is the best opportunity for junior and youth athletes to showcase their abilities to earn tickets for the world championship. We are trying to have the India camp at Lucknow after the meet as now we have world class facilities at the Sports Authority of India centre,” said Srivastava.
He expects a fierce battle among throwers as top athletes from Patiala, Kerala and even hosts Uttar Pradesh would be looking for better showing.
In the last edition of the championship at Bengaluru, Kerala had the overall championship, while Haryana boy Pankaj Malik grabbed the male best athlete title and Lili Das from West Bengal was named best female athlete. One national and meet record each was created in the championship.