Uttar Pradesh’s Sachin Yadav won gold in men’s javelin throw at the 38th National Games in Dehradun on Wednesday. | Photo: RITU RAJ KONWAR
Two performances, quartermiler Aishwarya Mishra’s 51.12s and javelin thrower Sachin Yadav’s 84.39m which figure among top five in India’s all-time list, stood out in athletics at the 38th National Games which wound up here on Friday.
While javelin throwers have often produced big season-openers – World champion Neeraj Chopra started with over 88m throws in the last three years though he begins only by May – no Indian quartermiler has started the way Aishwarya has.
“I was in a sort of trance for some five to 10 minutes when I saw the time,” said Aishwarya. “If everything goes well, I’m hoping to do a national record this year.”
Even Hima Das, the National record-holder with 50.79s (2018 Jakarta Asian Games) only opened that year with 53.21s. And Aishwarya started last year with 54.51s in mid-March.
Incidentally, the last time Aishwarya came close to this impressive time – with 51.18s at the 2022 Federation Cup – she went incommunicado for more than a month after that. Even the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) had no clue about her whereabouts then.
In this scenario, is the national federation happy or worried with the National Games performances?
“I think there are good performances so it is a good sign that people are improving overall,” World Athletics vice-president Adille Sumariwalla who is also the AFI spokesperson, told The Hindu here.
Asked specifically about Aishwarya, he said, “I don’t know what’s she’s training, how she’s training, for what she’s training, will have to talk to the coaches.”
And though Asian silver medallist Aishwarya claimed to be a national camper (she trained in Dehradun for some 20 days before the National Games) and that she was getting her workouts from the national camp, Sumariwalla made it clear she was not.
“At the moment, she’s not,” said Sumariwalla, also a former AFI president.
Some of India’s leading quartermilers, including Nirmala Sheoran (lost her 2017 Asian 400m gold), Anjali Devi (India’s fastest in 2023, 51.48s) and Deepanshi (third fastest in 2024, 52.01) are all now under dope suspension while Hima Das was also suspended for 16 months for a ‘whereabouts’ failure. And in javelin, five of India’s all-time top 10 have run into dope trouble.
With India rising in world doping charts, it is important that the National Anti-Doping Agency rigorously tests athletes before this year’s Asian and World championships to avoid any embarrassment at the majors.
Meanwhile Tamil Nadu’s Vithya Ramraj, Indian 4x400m relay team member at last year’s Paris Olympics and World Relays, has decided not to run the 400m this year.
“I don’t have plans for the 400m. And I’m not in the national camp. My goal is to run 400m hurdles in 54s and do the World championship,” said Vithya who now trains at JSW’s IIS centre in Ballari.
“We have no problem with that, we have said that people can train anywhere. Except that they will not be considered for the relay. So, if they want to do individual 400m hurdles, we have no objection. We are happy,” said Sumariwalla.
Published – February 14, 2025 07:43 pm IST
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