Asian Games double silver medallist Soma Biswas said Monday that the performance of the Indian heptathlon contingent at the Incheon Asiad was far from satisfactory and needed marked improvement to entertain hopes of winning a medal at the Beijing World Championships to be held Aug 22-30 next year.
"Performance of our athletes in heptathlon was not satisfactory. We generally do well in several events of heptathlon but this year the performance dropped markedly," Soma told IANS on the second day of the 54th National Open Athletics Championships at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here.
Soma won silver at the 2002 Busan Asian Games and the 2006 Doha Games. She managed to win the 110 metre hurdles, the 200m and the 800m races during the medal-winning feats in the discipline.
However, 12 years down the line other Indian heptathletes Sushmita Singha Roy and Swapna Barman failed to win any medal in Incheon.
Soma said that though performances have been below par but some athletes are promising and can perform well, provided they prepare themselves properly.
"Though we don't have anyone prepared to win medals in the World Championships but if prepared systematically, promising athletes like Sushmita Hembram, Swapna and others can do well," said the Arjuna Awardee.
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She added that the entire athletics contingent, which won 13 medals (two golds, four silvers and seven bronzes, under-performed at Incheon.
"The number of gold medals dropped significantly. With the potential of the squad, we should have done better," she said.