She has been quietly training in Germany for the last four months and has stayed away from competitions. Now with a series of meets coming up in the next few months — including the Asians, Worlds and the Asian Games — Annu Rani is back in the country.
Nobody is expected to trouble Rani, the Commonwealth Games bronze medallist and a World Championships finalist, at the 26th National Federation Cup athletics championships which begin at the Birsa Munda Stadium here on Monday, but all eyes will be on the star javelin thrower. To see how much her German training has helped.
Qualifying event
The Athletics Federation of India has marked the Federation Cup as a qualification event for the Asian Championships, which will be held in Thailand in July, and with only two berths available in every event, a close fight is expected in many events.
The men’s triple jump is one event where one can expect fireworks, though Praveen Chithravel who rewrote the National record to push it to a heady 17.37m early this month in Cuba, is not here.
“All four (Praveen, Abdulla Aboobacker, Karthik Unnikrishnan and Eldhose Paul) are capable of going close to it or even breaking it,” said Hari Krishnan, who has been guiding the triple jumpers at the National camp. “Eldhose has a slight ankle pain, but he will be back at the inter-State meet.”
India won the Commonwealth Games gold and silver through Eldhose and Abdulla in Birmingham last year. But only Abdulla and Karthik will be in action here.
Missing stars
Hima Das, the women’s 400m National record-holder and Asian Games silver medallist, who dropped down to shorter sprints later, will be the big name missing here. Her name does not figure in any of the events.
The 400m, both men and women, will also be hotly contested with a few of the stars making a comeback after injuries or loss of form.
The top long jumpers — Jeswin Aldrin and M. Sreeshankar, who came up with some impressive performances at recent meets abroad — are also absent, while Shaili Singh has opted to skip the meet as she will be competing in the Seiko Golden Grand Prix, a World Athletics Continental Tour-Gold event in Yokohama, on May 21.
Over 800 athletes will be seen in action at the four-day meet.
