The 38th National Games of India are finally upon us and as in any multi-sport event, athletics will be the cynosure of all eyes. Athletics at National Games are one of the keenly followed action
However, the timing of the event couldn’t have been worse.
Coming bang in the off-season, when most of the stadia across the world are shut due to winter, most of our athletes wouldn’t want to enter the competition for fear of picking up injuries in the cold weather- the games are in Uttarakhand of all places- and even if in good shape wouldn’t want to peak too early.
Most of our top athletes, who will be hoping to compete in the world championships later in the year at Tokyo- the likes of Neeraj Chopra, Avinash Sable, Kishore Jena, Annu Rani, Shaili Singh and Jeswin Aldrin- will be giving the games a miss.
Nevertheless, any competition is a challenge and opportunity for the athletes wanting a prove a point. Let us look at the important plot points that have unravelled at Dehradun in the first 2 days of the athletics competition.
Men’s sprints:
It is tough to look beyond Animesh Kujur here. In the past year, he has lowered his 100m PB from 10.6s to 10.2s and if he gets better at his start (and it’s a big IF), he can challenge the 10s barrier. All eyes will be on how he does in his favourite event- 200m.
Pranav Gurav also did well with a PB. Amlan Borgohain will be looking to improve as the season progresses.
Men’s middle distance:
Bapi Hansda had a rough 2024- here he showed why there is so much noise around him with a PB and gold at 46.82s. The entire 400m relay quartet and Jay Kumar were missing.
The timings in both men’s and women’s 1500m were poor- you cannot blame those who turned up.
Men’s jumps:
None of the big names turned up for men’s long jump- gold went at 7.7m to Shahnavaz Khan of UP. The distance tells its own story.
Women’s sprints:
Sudeshna Shivankar won gold in 100m, closely followed by Nithya Gandhe- not the greatest timings. I’m waiting to see how Abinaya Rajarajan does this season.
Jyothi Yarraji was expected to win 100m hurdles. It was Moumita Mondol who created a ripple here by winning silver in 100m hurdles and following it with a gold in long jump (6.21m).
Women’s middle-distance:
Aishwarya Mishra was away from the limelight in 400m because of other talents like Hima Das, Kiran, Rupal and Priya Mohan but here she was the clear winner with an impressive timing of 51.12s.
Women’s long-distance:
There was some hope of a flight between Sanjivani Jadhav and Paris Olympian Ankita Dhyani; in the end, both their performances were underwhelming (a minute below PB) with Sanjivani coming on top.
Women’s throws:
There was a time when Indian women’s discus throwers used to consistently cross 60m. However since Kamalpreet’s doping ban and Seema Antil’s decline, no one seems to have taken the baton forward. Amanat Kamboj is showing some promise.
Jyoti vs Deepika was what everyone was expecting- Karishma Sanil of Karnataka came out of syllabus. She bettered her PB by almost 3m with 55.55m; unfortunately, she lost the gold to Jyoti because of a lesser second-best throw.
Women’s jumps:
Women’s pole vault has for some time been a two-horse race at the national level- Pavithra Vengatesh vs Baranica Elangovan- both of TamilNadu. Both have PBs of 4.15m- they won gold and silver without crossing 4m.
Overall, apart from a few bright sparks, the first 2 days were disappointing. Here’s us hoping for some fireworks from the remaining 3 days.
