Birmingham: Commonwealth Games on track. The track and field events at the Birmingham Games begin today. It is a setback for India that the superstar Olympian Neeraj Chopra did not compete in the javelin throw due to injury.
Malayali long jump player Murali Sreesankar, steeplechase player Avinash Sable, women’s discus thrower Seema Punia and javelin player Annu Rani are medal hopefuls. Malayalee stars Abdullah Abubakar, Eldos Paul and Praveen Chitravel are competing in triple jump.
At least one medal is expected in triple jump. All the three athletes competed in the World Athletics Championships held last week. India’s best performance in track and field was at the 2010 Delhi Games. Indian athletes won two gold, three silver and seven bronze medals in the games held in the country. The 2014 and 2018 Games were not much better. The total was one gold, one silver and one bronze.
The men’s long jump qualifying round will be held first today. Sreesankar and another Malayalam actor Muhammad Anees Yahia are competing. Sreesankar, who holds the national record, is in great form. He was able to cross eight meters several times during the season. Yahia crossed eight meters five times in the season. The final is for four. Seema Poonia and Navjeet Kaur Dhillon will compete in discus throw. They are the silver and bronze medalists of the last season. Veteran Seema Poonia has won three silvers and one bronze so far.
National record holder Manpreet Kaur is also competing in women’s shot put. Dyuthi Chand will run in the 100m heats. High jump star Tejaswin Shankar, who was included in the Indian team due to the intervention of the Delhi High Court, will also appear in the qualifying round.
India has so far won five gold, 10 silver and 13 bronze medals in track and field at the Games. The gold medal won by the legendary sprinter late Milkha Singh in the 1958 Games is the brightest among them.
100m and 4-100m relay team member Sekar Dhanalakshmi, long jump and triple jump player Aishwarya Babu were disqualified following failing doping tests.
