Inter State Athletic Meet: Last Chance for Indian Athletes to Qualify Tokyo Olympics 2021

Inter State Athletic Meet: Last Chance for Indian Athletes to Qualify Tokyo Olympics 2021

Inter State Athletics meet, Patiala

The 60th Inter-State Athletics Championships will be held from 25th June to 29th June, and will be the last chance for Indian hopefuls to secure a spot in the Indian contingent that will be going to the Tokyo Olympics. The pressure is on for the Indian athletes to perform, as AFI will be inviting athletes from Maldives Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Chinese Taipei, Malaysia and Kazakhstan for the competition.

 “We are planning this competition very carefully due to the pandemic situation. To avoid large gatherings at one place, we have decided to host the competition at two different locations in Patiala,” said Adille J Sumariwalla, AFI President to DT Next.

“Netaji Subhash National Institute of Sports will be the venue for 24 events while other 19 events will be held at Punjabi University grounds. All the mandatory Standard Operating Procedures will be strictly followed and we are not going to provide accommodation to the teams,” he added.

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The start list for the Championships has been released and only athletes who meet the AFI qualification standards for this competition will only be allowed to participate.

Start List released; Dutee Chand, Hima Das looking to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics

Hima Das, Dutee Chand will be featuring in the Indian Grand Prix 4
Hima Das and Dutee Chand looking to qualify to the Tokyo Olympics

Dutee Chand and Hima Das will be running in the women’s 100m and 200m in hopes to better their timings and qualify for the Tokyo Olympics.

Dutee Chand broke the Indian national record at the Indian Grand Prix 4 just last week, but missed out on the qualification mark by just 0.02 seconds. She currently sits at no 42 in the world, and bettering her time will ensure that she qualifies to the Olympics through at least the World Rankings.

Hima Das will be looking to qualify in the 200m by breaching the qualification time, since her ranking is not high enough to qualify through that.

Several other Athletes Looking to Make the Cut

Tejaswin Shankar,  India’s high jump national record holder at 2.29m, will be looking to make his mark at Patiala soon. The 22 year old has to clear the 2.33m mark to qualify for the Olympics this year.

“The obvious goal is to achieve 2.33m. That’s the only way out for me to go to Japan as my world ranking points, which is the second option to qualify for the Olympics, aren’t good enough to make the cut,” Shankar, who flew down to New Delhi last week, told IANS on Monday.

23 year old Harmilan Bain specialises in the 1500m event. She broke her personal best record just last week, and will also be looking to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics.

“I want to qualify for the Olympics. Probably just two more tournaments – the Federation Cup and the Inter-State Meet, and I am sure that I will qualify for the Olympics through the Inter-State Meet,” Harmilan told the Bridge back in January.

The talented Kerala team also has a few athletes to look out for, including Jisna Mathew and Ancy Sojan. Long jumper Sreeshankar will be looking to make his mark as well. The youngster has already qualified for his first Tokyo Olympics during the Federation Cup is looking to get back into competition mode.

As the meet nears, the expectations of the athletes to qualify for the Olympics is high. The start list for the Championships have been released.

Also read: Tokyo Olympics: Who Will End on Top of the Medal Tally- USA or China?