India's track and field athletes strive to improve on Hangzhou 2023 medal tally

Athletics contributed the majority of India's medals at the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games. As the showpiece track and field competitions begin in Aichi-Nagoya on Wednesday, hopes will be high for the Indian contingent to emulate its performance from the last edition, and even improve on its tally.

India won 29 medals in athletics--six gold, 14 silver and nine bronze. The superstar of Indian athletics, Neeraj Chopra, who is also the defending champion, will miss the action because of an ankle injury. There is no shortage of star power, though. The onus will be on seasoned campaigners such as long jumpers Murali Sreeshankar and Ancy Sojan, two-time defending champion shot putter Tajinderpal Singh Toor, steeplechasers Avinash Sable and Parul Chaudhary, long-distance runner Gulveer Singh and decathlete Tejaswin Shankar to shine in Aichi-Nagoya.

National records have tumbled in Indian athletics this season. The performance at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow was impressive with long-distance runner Gulveer Singh's two medals the icing on the cake. Chopra was there too, winning a silver medal (85.83m) and guiding young Yashvir Singh to bronze with an 85.41m throw. Yashvir and experienced Rohit Yadav will be expected to deliver in men's javelin, an event in which India has excelled at multi-disciplinary meets.

There will be Pakistan's Olympic champion Arshad Nadeem and Sri Lankan sensation Rumesh Tharanga, both of whom are capable of throwing the spear beyond 90m. Yashvir's CWG performance was also his personal best, while Rohit produced 87.68m at the World Athletics Silver-level Continental Tour meet in Bhubaneswar after the CWG. In Hangzhou, India had a gold-silver finish through Neeraj and Kishore Jena.

Long jumper Murali Sreeshankar has made a fine comeback from injury. The 27-year-old finished with silver at the Glasgow CWG behind Jamaica's Tajay Gayle, a former world champion. Sreeshankar, who missed the Paris Olympics with a left patellar tendon rupture that almost ended his career, won the World Athletics Continental Tour meet after Glasgow with a jump of 8.38m, his best since returning from injury. Sreeshankar had won silver at the Hangzhou Asian Games in 2023 and will be eager for an upgrade in Nagoya.

In women's long jump, Ancy Sojan will be fired up after breaking the long-standing national record of Anju Bobby George this season. She leaped to 6.88m at the Inter-State Athletics Championships in Bhubaneswar earlier this year, surpassing Anju's 22-year-old national record of 6.83m, set at the 2004 Athens Olympics. She won silver in the Hangzhou Asian Games, and tops the season's best list in Asia, with China's Yingying Huang (6.76m) and India's Shaili Singh (6.67m) next on the list.

Tajinderpal Toor is in his third Games and will be eyeing a hat-trick of titles. He has the season's best mark in Asia (21.03m), ahead of China's Jialiang Xing. Tejaswin Shankar has been breaking new ground in decathlon. He has crossed the 8,000-point barrier, scoring 8,057 this season, while his bronze at the CWG came despite aggravating a knee injury. He will be aiming for a podium finish in Aichi-Nagoya. Japan's Yuma Maruyama has the best mark in Asia this season, with 8,321 points.

Gulveer had a 10,000m bronze in the previous edition of the Games, but has improved leaps and bounds. His sensational showing at the CWG in Glasgow, where he took silver in the 10,000m and bronze in the 5,000m, makes him a strong medal contender in both races.

Avinash Sable is making a comeback in the 3,000m steeplechase after recovering from a career-threatening ACL injury a year ago. Parul Chaudhary will be looking to finish on the podium after a lacklustre CWG. She is the defending champion in the 5,000m and was a silver medallist in the 3,000m steeplechase the last time.

Sarvesh Kushare, who set a men's high jump national record of 2.31m at the National Inter-State meet this year, narrowly missed a medal in the last edition. This time, he has further established his credentials, having won CWG silver and finished third in the Monaco Diamond League. A lot will be expected from quarter-miler Vishal TK, who set the national record of 44.98sec in 400m, and the men's 4x400m relay team as well.

There were some hiccups before the team left, with three athletes, including women's javelin defending champion Annu Rani, dropped from the squad due to poor form.