Paris Olympics: We will do much better but let's see about medals, athletics chief says

It’s a million dollar question as to whether the Indian athletics contingent can add a second medal apart from Neeraj Chopra in Paris Olympics – something which irks Adille Sumariwalla, the long serving president of Athletics Federation of India (AFI) no end. There is certainly hope in the air with the largest ever track & field squad set for the Games, but Adille believes in giving a reality check to the expectations.

The number of Indian athletes in fray were 10 at London 2012, which rose double that mark at Tokyo while it’s 30 after the inter-state meet at Panchkula in end-July. ‘’The increase in number shows that there has been a steady progression. We will certainly do better than last time, but then, I am no astrologer to quote a figure about medals,’’ said the AFI supremo, a multiple national champion sprinter and Olympian himself.

The athletes, who are expected to assemble in Paris on 28 July, have now fanned out to train in three different countries: Turkiye, Poland and Switzerland for final phase of their training.

If a medal in athletics had looked a bridge too far for the Indian contingent in the Olympics over the decades, notwithstanding the heartbreaks of Milkha Singh and P.T. Usha, it was Neeraj Chopra who had taught the fans to dream by hurling his javelin to 87.58 metres in Tokyo three years back. The likes of Jeswin Aldrin, Anu Rani or the men’s 4 x 400 metres relay quartet boosted the hopes with an unprecedented haul of 29 medals at the Hangzhou Asian Games – raising hopes of at least a second medal at the ‘greatest show on earth.’

Speaking to the National Herald during an exclusive interview over phone, Sumariwalla said: ‘’We can pin hopes on a number of athletes, including the men’s 4 x 400 metres relay team, to make finals and be in the top six. The likes of Neeraj and Kishore Jena in the javelin, Jeswin Aldrin (long jump), Annu Rani (women’s javelin), Abdullah Abubaker (triple jump) and Avinash Sable (3000m steeplechase) are all capable of reaching the top six if they can do their best.

‘’From there, anything can happen on a given day. For example, both in Olympics and the last World Championship in Budapest, there were javelin throwers who had crossed the 90 metres barrier. Neeraj, on the other hand, is yet to do that but his efforts were good enough to produce a gold on both occasions,’’ said Sumariwalla, who is also a vice president of World Athletics.

Asked whether the iconic athlete can retain his gold, the administrator said on an optimistic note: ‘’I have spoken to his coach and he assured me that Neeraj is fit and raring to go. His biggest strength is his consistency which had helped him land gold in back-to-back Asian Games, Commonwealth Games, Olympics and the Worlds,’’ he said.

How realistic is it to expect medals on the basis of unprecedented medal haul in Asian Games? ‘’There is no comparison between the two but the results of our athletes show that we are getting there, quite often getting into the semi-final rounds and more. A process has been set in place and if we can continue to do that, medals will automatically come – if not in Paris, then in the next cycle in Los Angeles. This is now all countries plan,’’ he added.