In the golden hour under the stadium lights, decathlon national record holder Tejaswin Shankar is warming up. On Friday, he would compete in his first set of events at the Federation Cup Athletics in Birsa Munda Stadium, Ranchi, aiming to qualify for the upcoming Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in July.
But the 27-year-old from Delhi will have to better his season’s best to meet the qualification standard set by the Athletics Federation of India. His only decathlon event this season was at David Nobles Combined Events in USA, where he scored 7947 points. The AFI-set mark is 7787. He knows its relevance. “It is a crucial tournament for me as the CWG qualification is on the line. I came to India ten days back and landed here three days back to acclimatise with the weather,” Tejaswin said during the press conference.
Tejaswin, who is also national record holder in high jump, has a chance to qualify for both events. “I will prioritise Decathlon for CWG as I get to do ten events together,” said Tejaswin.
Federation Cup, one of the main fixtures in the Indian athletics calendar, will be a qualifying event for CWG and Asian U23 Athletics Championships. However, only 32 athletes including 16 men and 16 women will be allowed to participate in CWG. “If there are more than 32 athletes, the selection committee will have to pick and choose as organisers have made it clear that every Athletics squad will have only 32 athletes,” Lalit Bhanot, Chairman of AFI planning commission said.
Commonwealth Games have a competitive field in athletics with the presence of Caribbean and African athletes in most of the events. Qualifying standards for events like 100m (10.16s), 400m (44.96s) would need athletes to break the national record and for events like javelin throw (82.61m) it is world class.
Hurl fest
Post Neeraj Chopra’s gold medal in Tokyo, javelin throw has become a blue riband event in India’s athletics landscape. A top national event usually features at least five throwers that have crossed the 80m mark. The field in Ranchi has 2025 World championship finalist Sachin Yadav, 2022 World Championship finalist Rohit Yadav, Asian Games silver medallist Kishore Kumar Jena among others.
The qualification standard is set at 82.61m and one would expect that the likes of Sachin and Rohit will book their berth for CWG as double Olympics Chopra hasn’t started his season yet.
Story continues below this ad
Stacked with quality
The qualifying mark for long jump is 8.05m and the selection committee will be spoilt for choices as the field features ace jumper Sreeshankar Murali, returning national record holder Jeswin Aldrin, and NCAA indoor champion Lokesh Satyanathan.
Lokesh, who hasn’t competed in any domestic competition this year, was given an exception by AFI as he was regularly competing on the NCAA circuit and also won the indoor final title there. “Long jump is very stacked and we can see a big mark if these athletes have a good day. It is going to be a tough race for CWG qualification,” a jump coach said.
Despite youngster Shahnavaz Khan, who has the best Indian mark of 8.43m, not participating due to his inclusion in the national camp for U20 World Championships, the field is stacked enough to make the headlines.
Eyes on sprinters
Indian sprinters, who stole the limelight last year due to multiple national records, will find it tough to qualify for the 100m dash because the qualifying mark has been revised to 10.20s, which would require them to breach the national record of 10.18s.
Story continues below this ad
“I know it is going to be tough as the qualification mark for 100m is high but my focus is on 200m, which is my pet event,” said India’s ace sprinter Animesh Kujur. Animesh needs a timing of less than 20.61s in 200m to book his berth.
Former national record holder Gurindervir Singh said the tough qualification mark will act as motivation. “Yes, it is a tough mark but we have gone below 10.20s last year and I think with the set of athletes competing, we can push it further. Such tough marks act as extra motivation,” he told The Indian Express.
Apart from these events, eyes will on Annu Rani (Javelin Throw), Tajinderpal Singh Toor (Shot Put), Vishal TK (400m), Shaili Singh (Long Jump), Ancy Sojan (Long Jump) who will attempt to qualify for the Commonwealth Games.
Till now, 16 male athletes and three female athletes have breached the qualification mark for the Commonwealth Games with their selection rests with the selection committee.
Day 1 Important events
Decathlon: 5 events
Women’s Long Jump final: 6:00 pm
Women’s Discus Throw: 7:00 pm
10000m men’s: 6:25 am
10000m women’s: 5:40 am
3000m Steeplechase men’s: 8:20 pm
3000m Steeplechase women’s: 8:10 pm
