Guntur: Top Indian athletes, including several medal winners at the recent Asian Athletics Championships, will vie for honours at the 57th National Inter-State Athletics meet starting here Saturday.
The four-day championships, which will see a newly-laid blue synthetic track, will be the last chance for those athletes who are yet to attain the qualifying mark for the IAAF World Championships scheduled for August 4-13 in London.
Among those expected to hog the limelight are Dutee Chand, Srabani Nanda, Mohammed Anas, Ajay Kumar Saroj and Manpreet Singh. However, national record holder Tintu Luka has opted out of the meet as she is unwell.
This will be another chance for Dutee to book a berth for the London Worlds if she can clock a time of 11.26 seconds or less in the sprints here.
Athletics Federation of India (AFI) secretary- general CK Valson said, “Most Indian athletes who participated in the recently-concluded Asian Championships in Bhubaneswar will be participating in the meet.
“Those athletes who have already attained the qualifying mark for the World Championships will participate to improve their performances while for others it is a golden chance to impress the selection committee. The composition of 4x400m men and women relay teams for World Championships will also be decided after the Guntur meet.
Silver for Damneet
Damneet Singh grabbed a silver in the boys’ hammer throw event to give India their first medal on the third day of the IAAF World U-18 Athletics Championships in Nairobi, Friday. He threw the iron ball to a distance of 74.20m on his first attempt. Mykhaylo Kokhan of Ukraine won the gold with a best throw of 82.31m while Raphael Winkelvoss of Germany took the bronze by clearing a distance of 71.78m.
Press Trust of India
