Federation Cup review: A grim wake-up call for Indian athletes ahead of Paris Olympics

The 27th Federation Cup, held at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar from May 12 to 15, could have been one of the most memorable domestic athletics meetings in recent times, setting the tone for the upcoming Paris Olympics.

The entry list had a certain Neeraj Chopra amongst the participants for the men’s javelin throw. The 26-year-old, India’s only Olympic and World Champion in track and field, had confirmed he would take part in an event on home soil for the first time in three years.

It raised the profile of the meet and also drew attention towards those still chasing the Olympic standard in other events with less than two months remaining in the qualification cycle.

Neeraj turned up for the event less than a week after his season-opener in Doha where he finished second with 88.36m throw in the Diamond League meeting. A police vehicle escorted the star as he arrived for a light training session two hours before his event on the final day.

Considering the European competitions he is set to take part in, as he prepares for Paris, Neeraj did not push himself unnecessarily, but still won gold with his fourth and last throw of 82.27m in front of nearly two thousand spectators. He happily obliged requests for autographs and selfies too.

“It was a great feeling to compete in India after a long time. I’m happy to see so many people turning up to watch athletics,” he said afterwards.

While Neeraj’s homecoming did make a mark, the fact that no athlete in the capital of Odisha managed to book a spot for the Summer Games was disappointing.

In javelin itself, silver medallist Manu DP (82.06m) fell well short of the entry mark of 85.50m for Paris. Home favourite Kishore Jena, who booked his spot for Olympics with his silver medal-winning performance at the Hangzhou Asian Games, finished fifth with 75.49m. Jena opened his season along with Neeraj in Doha but there too, he could only produce 76.31m.

For many Olympic aspirants, the domestic outdoor season began with individual meets for 400m, jumps, and throws in March, followed by select events at the Indian Grand Prix-I on April 30.

Come the Federation Cup, the athletes were expected to at least get closer to the entry standards for Paris. And the strategy was to follow it up by gaining confidence through some overseas exposure before hitting one’s stride at the National Inter-State Championships from June 27 to 30 in Panchkula.

The conditions leading up to the competition were not ideal — the maximum temperature was hovering around 40 degrees and the humidity was considerably high. But the heavy downpour on the night before the opening day made things much better.

The 400m hurdlers were in focus on day one. T. Santhosh Kumar (above; centre), who finished sixth at the Asian Games and has a Personal Best (PB) of 49.09s, clinched gold but clocked 50.04s. R. Vithya Ramraj, the joint National Record-holder with the legendary P. T. Usha at 55.42s, pulled out at the start of the women’s final with a back issue and Punjab’s Veerpal Kaur (59.43s) emerged as the winner.

Abha Khatua claimed sole ownership of the National Record in women’s shot put on the second day. Abha, who equalled Manpreet’s Kaur effort of 18.06m in Asian Championships in July last year, went past it with a throw of 18.41m in the fifth round. The 28-year-old, who switched from gliding to rotation technique in 2022, is still well short of the automatic qualification mark of 18.80m for the Paris Olympics.

A day later, Asian Record-holder Tajinderpal Singh Toor took the gold in men’s event with 20.38m, well below his personal best of 21.77m set at the same competition last year in June.

Toor, who recorded four foul throws, said he has some fitness issues due to which he will not go for competitions outside India but is confident of achieving the 21.50m mark required to qualify for Olympics at the National Inter-State Championships.

The jumpers failed to live up to their billing. In the absence of M Sreeshankar, who had already qualified for Paris but will be unable to take part due to injury, Jeswin Aldrin is expected to represent the nation in men’s long jump. He is the National Record-holder at 8.42m. However, the 22-year-old from Tamil Nadu could only produce 7.99m on his way to the gold medal despite pleasant conditions.

In the women’s event, an exciting contest was expected between the experienced Nayana James of Kerala and Uttar Pradesh’s young Shaili Singh.

While Nayana had won the Indian Open in March with a PB of 6.67m, Shaili had clinched gold at IGP-1 in Bengaluru with 6.52m. Nayana (6.53m) defeated Shaili (6.34m) for the top spot on the podium in Bhubaneswar but to achieve 6.86m, the mark for Paris, both of them need to do much better.

Praveen Chithravel, the National Record-holder in men’s triple jump at 17.37m, hoped to take inspiration from the presence of one of his biggest supporters in Neeraj but his gold medal-winning effort was just 16.79m. Praveen had a 17.12m jump during IGP-1, just 10cm short of the qualifying mark for Paris, and he is capable of covering that gap in the next one-and-a-half month.

In sprints, Animesh Kujur and Unnathi Aiyappa Bolland showed great potential and are bright prospects for the future.

Most members of the men’s and women’s 4x400m relay teams, which qualified for Paris Olympics during the World Relays event in The Bahamas, participated in Bhubaneswar to stay in competition mode ahead of the Asian Relay Championships in Bangkok where they’ll aim to do well and qualify for the mixed relay also.

With the exception of Neeraj, big names such as hurdler Jyothi Yarraji, high jumper Tejaswin Shankar, javelin thrower Annu Rani, and steeplechasers Avinash Sable and Parul Chaudhary who missed the Federation Cup either due to training or competing abroad, will have to turn up for the National Inter-State Championships, which is a mandatory event.

During a press conference on the penultimate day of the event, Athletics Federation of India President Adille Sumariwalla said, “So far 20 have qualified directly, including the relay teams, for the Olympics.

Some will qualify through the rankings. We hope by the time the qualification period closes, 35 of our athletes would have qualified.” The Federation Cup performances are a wake-up call if India intends to send a big athletics contingent to Paris.