Home » Sports » Athletics » Is India emerging as a new athletics force in...
Is India emerging as a new athletics force in Asia?
Suman Ray & The Associated Press
23 Aug 2021 19:08:PM
India is the only Asian country to win medals at U20 World Athletics Championship. (Photo Credit: AFI/Twitter)
India is the only Asian country to feature in the medals tally at the just-concluded U-20 World Athletics Championships in Nairobi.
India bagged three medals in the U20 World Athletics Championships.
India have also bagged two silver medals.
Legendary athlete Gurbachan Singh Randhawa said Indian athletics is at its all-time peak.
Indian athletics is on a high.
After javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra's historic track and field gold at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics on August 7, India is the only Asian country to feature in the medals tally at the just-concluded U-20 World Athletics Championships in Nairobi.
India bagged three medals in the championships, including two individual silver. None of the other 48 Asian countries could manage even a single medal.
At Tokyo, India were among only three Asian countries to bag a track and field medal, along with Qatar and Bahrain, finishing tied 18 with Qatar, both winning a gold each.
This raises two questions: Is India becoming an athletic force at least at the junior Asian level? And what happened to the traditional athletics power-houses in Asia like China, Qatar, Bahrain and Jordan? Did they field their best athletes at the U-20 World Championships or a depleted team?
While countries like China, Qatar and Bahrain might not have fielded their best athletes at Nairobi, but it doesn't take away the achievements of the young Indian athletes.
So is India on the verge of an athletics revolution?
World Championship bronze medallist Anju Bobby George feels the Indian athletics has got a facelift with Neeraj's gold.
Long jumper Shaili Singh's silver at Nairobi, missing the gold by only 1 cm, has also added impetus to the belief.
"It's really amazing. In our times there were sporadic good performances. But not like this. It's great to see young athletes talking about gold so confidently and feeling bad at settling for silver or bronze. I think, Indian athletics is in for a revolution."
Olympian and legendary athlete Gurbachan Singh Randhawa said Indian athletics is at its all-time peak.
"Milkha Singh would have been a proud man to see the standard of Indian athletics going up on a consistent basis. I feel the young athletes are doing very well. More glory to follow."
Athletics Federation of India (AFI) president Adille Sumariwalla said Neeraj's achievement is not an aberration and should not be viewed as an isolated incident.
"AFI had started grassroot programme in 500 districts 17 years back. This was envisaged by the then AFI secretary-general Lalit Bhanot. We scouted talents from every village in the country. The result is quite there to see," he added.
The best part of these youngsters is that they are not content with being second best. For the first time ever, Indian athletes are unhappy at getting silver medals in athletics. This is what happens when someone wins a gold medal in Olympics. After Neeraj achieving the impossible, the U-20 athletes are thinking nothing short of gold."
This was echoed in the voices of both the silver medallists at Nairobi, Shaili and Amit Khatri. Both felt sorry for missing out on gold.
Amit blamed faulty picking of water bottles while running resulting in a time loss for missing the top spot.
Shaili thought her overall inexperience and two foul jumps (4th and 5th attempts) cost her the gold by just a centimetre.
Under-20 World Athletics Championship