The World Athletics unveiled the revised athletics qualification method for the Paris Olympics, which has caused significant worry among Indian athletes owing to the more stringent requirements. As per those standards, only four Indians would manage to qualify, as per performances till now.
In the previous season, just four Indian competitors produced efforts that are expected to achieve the entrance requirements for their respective events. They are Priyanka Goswami, Murali Sreeshankar, Avinash Sable, and Neeraj Chopra (all in the javelin throw) (20 km Racewalk).
There are two options for athletes to qualify for the Olympics in Paris. The entrance standard will determine the basis for half of the qualification spots, while the global rankings will determine the basis for the other half. For 10,000 metres, combination events, race walks, and relays, the qualification season begins on December 31, 2022; for all other individual events, it begins on July 1, 2023.
All accomplishments must take place at events that World Athletics, continental associations, or national federations have sanctioned or organised. There will be a cap of three athletes per NOC who can qualify for individual events. The revised admission requirements are substantially more stringent than Tokyo 2020 in practically every event, which worries Indians.
According to former national record holder Amiya Kumar Mallik for Sportskeeda, “Even qualifying through the world ranking system will be tough for Indian sprinters as they don’t get the opportunity to compete in quality races to improve their rankings.”
Five Indian track and field athletes will have secured their participation through the entrance criteria based on their season’s achievements, eliminating the need for global rankings. Diskus thrower Kamalpreet Kaur is the only one of the five who is now serving a three-year drug suspension.
Avinash Sable easily beat the entrance criteria of 8:15.00 with his 8:11.20 effort in the 3000m Steeplechase at the Commonwealth Games, which ended Kenyan dominance of the event.
Neeraj Chopra, a javelin thrower who won the gold medal in Tokyo, effortlessly met the entrance criteria of 85.50m in every competition he took part in this year.
With a score of 8.36 metres, the current national record set at the Federation Cup in Kerala earlier this year, Sreeshankar would qualify easily over the entrance threshold of 8.27 metres. After that display, though, his accomplishments in the World Championships and the Commonwealth Games would not be sufficient.
Priyanka Goswami would win among women thanks to her national record time of 1:28.45 in the 20km Racewalk set the previous year.
