Neeraj Chopra, the world record holder of Javelin throw in the junior category will be the main attraction in Asian track and field meet which will be held at the Kalinga Stadium, Bhubaneswar from July 6 to 9.
Neeraj, a native of Khandra village in Panipat will be fancied for winning the javelin event even as the hosts are fancied for the men›s field events and women›s 800m race and also the 4x400m relay. However, India will miss the Arjuna Award winner Lalita Babar in the 3000m steeplechase.
It must be mentioned here that India has been dominating the javelin. Neeraj Chopra has a record of 86.48 meters while winning junior world title. In addition, he has also won the gold in the South Asian Games where he achieved the mark of 82.23m.
In the same event, Devinder Singh Kang surprised everyone in the Grand Prix meet recently by recording 84.57m. The third Indian in the fray, Abhishek Singh has also a record of 80m—incidentally these are better than the performance of Taipei’s Hyung Shih-Feng (79.74m) in last edition of the Asian Championship at Vuhan (China).
The same holds true for shot put where the the reigning champion, Inderjeet Singh is out because of doping but we have Tejinder Pal Singh, Jaspreet Singh Dhillon and Om Prakash. Recently, Tejinder surprised everyone by hurling the shot put to 20.40m. This is quite close to the previous Gold medal record of 20.41m by Inderjeet.
In the women’s section, Lalita Babar has clinched a gold medal in the 3000 steeplechase event last time. In her absence, Parul Chaudhary and Sudha Singh’s performance is not good enough for a medal, Similary, If Vikas Goda is fit, then he will be a strong contender for the gold medal.
Tintu Luka is expected to win the 800m gold this time too. Due to the emergence of Lila Das and Archana, the competition has become more tough than before. Archana and Lila will be the pace setters for Tintu Luka.
In the women’s category, India has won a silver medal in the 4 X400 m race and a gold medal in the previous year. The previous year participants Jisna Mathews, Debashree Mazumdar and MR Poovamma are also present this time. As hosts, India can field three participants play in each event, due to which our athletes will get lot of international exposure which is so crucial.