Asian Games 2023: India will start their track and field campaign in Hangzhou on Friday, 29 September. Neeraj Chopra and Jyothi Yarraji are two top medal prospects.
Shortly
- The Asian Games' track and field competitions get underway on 29 September.
- The two athletes most likely to win a gold medal are Neeraj Chopra and Jyothi Yarraji.
- At the Asian Games, India has dominated the track and field competition.
Neeraj Chopra, the Olympic champion javelin thrower, will be the centre of attention as India begins its athletics competition at the Asian Games on Friday, hoping to surpass its previous best of 20 medals.
The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) expects Chopra to lead a 65-member squad to at least 25 medals. The biggest number of Indian competitors, three athletes from the initial 68, were excluded because of injuries.
As usual, the majority of India's total medal haul is likely to come from athletics. Out of India's total of 70 medals at the 2018 Asian Games, athletics brought home 20 medals (8 gold, 9 silver, and 3 bronze).
The goal is to get at least 25 medals. Any extra is a plus, according to an AFI representative.
However, it might be challenging to match the eight gold medals the nation earned in the 2018 Asian Games.
Strong gold medal chances include Chopra, Tajinderpal Singh Toor in the shot throw, Avinash Sable in the 3000m steeplechase, and both the men's and women's 4x400m relay teams. The men's 4x400m relay team, including Toor, holds the Asian record.
The strongest chance for an athletics gold is 25-year-old Chopra, who just added a world championship to his Olympic gold. He is defending the gold medal he won last year.
Arshad Nadeem of Pakistan, who won a bronze medal at the 2018 Asian Games and won silver at the World Championships, will be his main competition in this matchup.
The 28-year-old Kishore Jena, who placed a respectable sixth in his first World Championships last month with a personal best throw of 84.77 metres, is also a medal contender in the men's javelin event. He had the third-best throw this season among Asians.
GOLD METAL ENTRANTS
The gold medal he won in 2018 will likely be retained by Toor, who is 28 years old. In individual events, he holds the sole Indian Asian record. The only thing that worries Toor is that he has a history of injuries in recent years.
The muscular Punjabi athlete broke his own Asian record in June by tossing the iron ball 21.77 metres while taking first place in the National Inter-State Championships.
Sable is a medal contender who cannot be ruled out. The national record, 8 minutes 11.20 seconds, is held by the silver medalist from the 2022 Commonwealth Games. His season-best time of 8:11.63 places him behind Miura Ryuji of Japan (season-best: 8:09.91) in second place among Asians.
Murali Sreeshankar, who now ranks fourth in the world and second among Asians behind compatriot Jeswin Aldrin, will be looking to rebound in the men's long jump following a lacklustre performance at the World Championships.