DOHA: The athletics federation of India, who had announced the 51 players for the Upcoming Championship in Doha, had shortlisted the name of 23 players for the trial. The championship will commence from 21 April till 24 April.
It is relay tournament, where the best of all the countries will participate. From the list of 51, there were many players who will be unlucky to miss the opportunity of playing championship, despite giving their best in the confirmatory Trials for the Forthcoming Asians Championship, held at National Institute of Sports, Patiala on Saturday.
The saving grace for the women sprinters, who attained the 4x100m relay qualification mark. With Dutee Chand running anchor, she will get the support from Archana Suseendran, Ranga K and Hina. They all will be train on their own accord, except for a two-week training module when they were placed together at the national camp in Patiala after their performance at the Federation Cup in March.
In an interview, Dutee Chand said, “the main area of concern in the relay is the coordination between the athletes while exchanging the baton and this part can make a lot of difference in the overall performance,”
She also added that to perform well they only have two weeks. so to perform well they need to pull their socks and deliver best in their upcoming trials on Monday.
Chand’s coach N Ramesh, who is the in-charge of relay team said “If the girls are able to repeat the Patiala trials performance in Doha, then there are chances of making it to the Asian Championship podium,”
In the last championship of 2017, India came third with 44.57 while China won the silver medal by 44.50
The main reason behind leaving the women sprinters out of the national camp was because they do not meet the performance criteria.
The Deputy national chief coach added “We go by the performance criteria while including a discipline/athlete in the national camp. But if the girls perform better in Doha, the federation might consider them for the national camp in future,”
QUALIFICATION WOES
The individual events, except for Gomti Marimuthu in 800m, all other athletes failed to reach the qualification standards. Gomti, whose season best was 2:03.21, attained the qualifying mark (2:05.00) by clocking 2:04.17.
The main disappointment came from triple jumper Parveen Chithrovel, whose season’s best is 16.51m, but whose best jump during the qualifiers was 14.92m.
Discus thrower Kamalpreet Kaur, whose season best is 60.25m, could only throw 56.03m, while Navjeet Kaur, who is part of the national camp, threw 56.32m, short of the qualifying mark of 58.50m.