Eugene, July 14: Race walkers Priyanka Goswami and Sandeep Kumar will be the first Indian athletes on view in the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 in the Hayward Field here on Friday (early hours of Saturday in India), but their team-mates M Sreeshankar and Avinash Sable are the ones favoured to come up with the best performances.
To be sure, two other Long Jumpers Jeswin Aldrin and Mohammed Anees Yahiya as well as Shot Putter Tajinderpal Singh Toor can also showcase their efforts by finding a place in the respective finals. If indeed that happens, it would be a further boost for Indian track and field sport after Neeraj Chopra’s Olympic Games gold last year.
There are good reasons for the favouritism, though. Sreeshankar has been rather consistent in hitting the 8.00m mark in six of his eight competitions this season. Sable has only got better this year, improving his own 3000m Steeplechase National Record twice and inching closer to the 8:10 mark. Both athletes expressed confidence that they would get to the respective final.
Sreeshankar said he was optimistic as he is well prepared. “It is heartening that all coaches and athletes have started recognising the Indian jumpers. When we arrived at the practice track this evening, a coach of another team said ‘The Great Indian team has come. Congratulations guys.’ That makes us proud,” Sreeshankar told circleofsport.com.
Asked if he felt pressure of expectations after his 8.36m jump earlier this year, the Indian National Record holder said: “There will be pressure but I trying to handle that. I am now used to it now, having competed in the Tokyo Olympics, the World Indoor Championships in Belgrade and the World Championships in Doha.”
Sreeshankar said the 10-day training stint in Chula Vista, facilitated by the Athletics Federation of India and the Sports Authority of India, was very helpful. “It is the best place I have trained in in terms of the training facilities, the recovery and the food,” he said of what used to be the US Olympic and Paralympic Training centre but is now managed by the City of Chula Vista.
Sable, who limbered up on Thursday evening, also spoke of his well-planned preparation. “I have prepared well. I have been in Colorado Springs for three months and I have improved from 8:16 earlier this season by four seconds. When people expect good times from me, I feel motivated to work hard to achieve that. I truly want to give it a shot,” he said.
“I have noticed improvements in the three months I have teamed up with coach Scott Simmons. Had I done this kind of work before the Olympic Games, especially with the group of athletes which trains in Colorado Springs, I may have done better,” he said, referring to Paul Chilemo who runs the 5000m for Kenya. “Training alongside such athletes enhances our capacity.”
