Raising the bar: Annu Rani is again in India after a coaching stint in Germany and could be trying to put her progress on show.
| Photo Credit: Reuters
She has been quietly coaching in Germany for the final 4 months and has stayed away from competitions. Now with a sequence of meets developing in the subsequent few months — together with the Asians, Worlds and the Asian Games — Annu Rani is again in the nation.
Nobody is anticipated to hassle Rani, the Commonwealth Games bronze medallist and a World Championships finalist, at the twenty sixth National Federation Cup athletics championships which start at the Birsa Munda Stadium right here on Monday, however all eyes will probably be on the star javelin thrower. To see how a lot her German coaching has helped.
Qualifying occasion
The Athletics Federation of India has marked the Federation Cup as a qualification occasion for the Asian Championships, which will probably be held in Thailand in July, and with solely two berths out there in each occasion, a detailed combat is anticipated in lots of occasions.
The males’s triple bounce is one occasion the place one can anticipate fireworks, although Praveen Chithravel who rewrote the National report to push it to a heady 17.37m early this month in Cuba, will not be right here.
“All four (Praveen, Abdulla Aboobacker, Karthik Unnikrishnan and Eldhose Paul) are capable of going close to it or even breaking it,” mentioned Hari Krishnan, who has been guiding the triple jumpers at the National camp. “Eldhose has a slight ankle pain, but he will be back at the inter-State meet.”
India received the Commonwealth Games gold and silver by way of Eldhose and Abdulla in Birmingham final yr. But solely Abdulla and Karthik will probably be in motion right here.
Missing stars
Hima Das, the girls’s 400m National record-holder and Asian Games silver medallist, who dropped all the way down to shorter sprints later, will probably be the huge identify lacking right here. Her identify doesn’t determine in any of the occasions.
The 400m, each women and men, will even be hotly contested with a number of of the stars making a comeback after accidents or lack of type.
The prime lengthy jumpers — Jeswin Aldrin and M. Sreeshankar, who got here up with some spectacular performances at latest meets overseas — are additionally absent, whereas Shaili Singh has opted to skip the meet as she will probably be competing in the Seiko Golden Grand Prix, a World Athletics Continental Tour-Gold occasion in Yokohama, on May 21.
Over 800 athletes will probably be seen in motion at the four-day meet.
