Stage set for Asian All-Star Athletics at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium

It is an opportunity long awaited by both athletes and officials. The remodeled Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium and the newly laid synthetic track wear a grandeur look. The Asian All-Star Athletics meet will be begin here tomorrow, the 29^th July.

There will be an opening ceremony at 4:15 p.m. on Thursday followed by men’s high jump. The three hour show on the opening day, which will be broadcast live by DD Sports, includes a 100m race for Elite Athletes with Disability (EAD) on the 14 events card. Rt. Hon. Jeremy Hunt MP, Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media & Sports, UK will be the Chief Guest on this grand occassion.

the newly inaugurated Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium (Photo: PTI)

Vikas Gowda, the former American national collegiate champion in discus throw, will be the main attraction on the evening. The Indian record-holder (64.96m – 2007) remains tall with his 63.22m season’s best among the list of competitors.

Sri Lanka’s Manjula Kumara Wijesekara, the reigning Asian champion and a student in United States, top the roster among the men high jumpers. He has to tackle Kazakhstan’s Vitaliy Tsykunov, Asian Indoor Games victor and Doha here at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.

The women’s long jump field looks strong with the trio of Indian jumpers-M A Prajusha, Mayookha Johny and Reshmi Bose-ready to leap farther although Uzbekistan’s multi-event specialist looks a threat with her recent national record performance of 6.81m registered at Tashkent in last month.

China’s Yang Yanbo and Liu Jing are a cut above the rest in the women’s shot put. Indian middle distance star Tintu Luka is a strong bet in women’s 800m, as also her teammate Prakash Verma on men’s side.

Indian athletes will be the top draw in 400m with Sini Jose raring to go on the women’s race. Kuwait’s Fawaz Dahesh Al-Shammari has a point to prove in men’s 110m hurdles. The 33-year-old athlete had won one of the three leg Asian Grand Prix series at Bangalore this year. With the absence of ace Chinese hurdler Ji Wei, he will have a challenge in the form of Thailand’s South East Asian Games champion Jumrut Rittidet. Incidentally Rittidet finished behind the Kuwaiti in the AGP in India.

Kazakh hurdler Anastasiya Soprunova, who made a clean sweep of medals in the AGP with a season’s best 13.31 secs clocking on the Bangalore leg last month will not take it easy any more. India’s Gayathry Govindaraj, who posted a national junior best 13.59 secs while taking part in the World junior championships at Moncton (Canada) hardly a week ago, is all set to push her to the limit here at the brand new Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.

Indian distance runners Kavita Raut and Preeja Sreedharan, with solid sub 16 minutes clocking during the Federation Cup on May day, look formidable in the women’s 5000m. With their company Trianingsih, the SEA Games champion from Indonesia, is looking for a better campaign at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Delhi.