Men’s javelin to be top draw at maiden Continental Tour event on August 10

The men’s javelin event is set to be the top draw when Bhubaneswar hosts India’s maiden World Athletics Continental Tour bronze level competition on August 10 with two Indians and as many Sri Lankans expected to vie for top honours.

Though two-time Olympic medallist Neeraj Chopra is missing from the competition, Sachin Yadav and Yashvir Singh will spearhead India’s challenge while Sri Lankans Sumeda Ranasinghe and Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage will also fancy their chances.

The total prize fund of the one-day event is $25,000.

Ranasinghe has already secured a direct spot in World Athletics Championships in September while Pathirage, Yadav and Singh are likely to make the showpiece through world ranking quota.

The 34-year-old Ranasinghe has the top season’s best with his 85.78m effort in March, while Pathirage, who won bronze in the NC Classic last month, has 85.14m for his best of the year.

Meanwhile, Yadav, the Asian Championships silver winner, has 85.16m as his season’s best while Singh’s top mark for the year stands at 82.57m. Rohit Yadav and Vikrant Malik are the other Indians in the fray, and both have 80m-plus personal best throws.

“This is the country’s first Continental Tour event and we are hoping for a successful competition so that the world knows we can host these kind of events,” Athletics Federation of India (AFI) President Bahadur Singh Sagoo said in a press conference.

The one-day competition, to be held at the Kalinga Stadium, will see 160 athletes slugging it out for honours in 19 events. Out of the 160 athletes, 97 are from India while the rest 63 are from abroad. Athletes from 17 countries are taking part in the competition.

Among the foreign countries, Nepal has sent the largest number of athletes at 13, followed by Sri Lanka (10) and Malaysia (9). South Africa and Great Britain have sent four athletes each.

“It is mandatory to include one throwing and one jumping event. The competition should have a minimum of 12 disciplines, including five in women’s. Certain events couldn’t be included as the duration of one-day Continental Tour event as per guidelines of WA is two hours and 30 minutes,” Sagoo added.

The Indians taking part in various events were picked from their best performance of the season till July 12. Those Indians who are in the top-7 rankings were considered for participation.

Indians to represent govt. departments or private entities in individual events

Since it’s an invitational competition, the Indian participants will represent their respective departments, employers, private entities or even their states like NCOE Bangalore, NCOE Traivandrum, Army, Air Foce, Reliance, JSW, etc. in individual events.

“Since this competition is an invitational event, the participating Indian athletes are allowed to represent their respective department or private entities,” Sagoo said.

If a national or continental record is made by an Indian athlete, that will enter the record books even if he or she is representing a department or private body, AFI officials clarified.

But, in relay event, only the national teams will compete.

The organisers had earlier planned to include the women’s 4x400m relay race as well as the mixed 4x400m relay but both the events were scrapped due to lack of participation.

Kujur, Sreeshankar, Shaili other top Indian stars

Besides men’s javelin, other events likely to see tough competition include men’s and women’s 400m and women’s long jump. The men’s 100m dash may also see some spark as Animesh Kujur, who holds the national record of 10.18 seconds, will be up against Malaysia’s Muhammad Azeem Fahli who ran wind-assisted 10.01 seconds and a legal 10.20 seconds, both in May.

In women’s long jump, Shaili Singh (season’s best 6.64m) and Ancy Sojan (6.54m) will be up against Alice Hopkins of Great Britain and Northern Irelands who has a season’s best of 6.59m.

South Africa’s Shirley Nekhubui, part of the bronze-winning 4x400m relay team, will compete in the individual quarter-mile event in which she has a season’s best of 51.28 seconds. Aishwarya Mishra (SB: 51.12 seconds) and Vithya Ramraj (SB: 52.81 seconds) will spearhead the Indian challenge in the event.

The men’s 400m event will see top Indians like Vishal TK, Rajesh Ramesh, Jay Kumar and Amoj Jacob taking on Sri Lanka’s Kalinga Hewa Kumarage who won bronze in the Asian Championships in May.

Other top Indians in fray include long jumper Murali Sreeshankar who has won three straight titles after his comeback and 800m national record holder Mohammed Afsal.

Gulveer Singh, national record holder in 5000m and 10,000m, is skipping the event as he is competing aboard.