Asian Athletics Championship: Top Four players to watch-out for
- Vikas Gowda a player from Karnataka is a Padma Shri awardee in 2017 and is one among the favourite to win medal for India.
- Manpreet Kaur holds Indian national record 17.96m in Women's Shot Put.
FollowAsian Athletics Championship got a grand opening yesterday and India will be hosting this prestigious event for third time. The Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneshwar witnessed a Indian Contingent led by Srabani Nanda, a local sprinter in the opening ceremony. The event which will be held from July 5- 9 will have 95 athletes from India out of which we have chosen four players who could bring us gold medal.
Ajay Kumar Saroj: With his best running time record of 3:44:4 in 1500 metres in 2016, Saroj is currently leading the 1500 metres sprint. In the on-going Asian Athletics Championship, he is leading the sprint with a lap time of 3:52:37 seconds in Men’s 1500 Heat-2. His good start in Kalinga Stadium has given hopes for India to grab medal in 1500 metres this year.
Neeraj Chopra: The 20-year-old javelin throw athlete is one of the favourites in Kalinga Stadium. So far he has won a gold medal in 2016 IAAF World U20 Championships which was held in Bydgoszcz, Poland. He also set a world junior record.
Apart from this, the Haryana athlete has won the gold medal in 2016 South Asian Games with a throw of 82.23 m. This throw during South Asian Games has equalled with the Indian national record. However, he had failed to qualify for 2016 Summer Olympics as he couldn’t meet the deadline for qualifiers.
Excited for @Bhubaneswar2017. Tayyari acchi rahi hai, body is feeling good 😊 Desh ka naam roshan karneki poori koshish rahegi 💪😃 pic.twitter.com/M8EInlVO41
— Neeraj Chopra (@Neeraj_chopra1) July 6, 2017
Manpreet Kaur: Women’s shot put player Manpreet Kaur has won Gold medal for her performance of 18.86m in 2017 at Asian Grand Prix in Jinhua, China. She turned out to be a sensation within Indian sports circle after her leading throw, which took her to the No 1 spot in the world rankings. She also holds Indian national record 17.96m in Women's Shot Put.
Vikas Gowda: Vikas Gowda is a player from Karnataka who is a Padma Shri awardee in 2017.His personal best throw in discus throw is 66.28 meters which is also Indian national record which was achieved in 2012. He has won the medal for India for two consecutive times in AAC. The first medal was grabbed by him in 2013 AAC Games at Pune, India and the second one in 2015 in Wuhan, China.
However he was on the edge for qualifying in this year’s game by his miserable throw. After getting a confirmation about his qualification recently, Vikas Gowda will be aiming at turning things around.
