Qualified at home, Indian athletes fail to make the cut at Olympics

While winning medals in track and field events may still be a tough task, can India's athletes at least match the minimum qualifying times at the real event?

If it wasn’t for three women, Tintu Luka, Sudha Singh and Lalita Babar, India’s track and field athletes would have had an ignominious distinction at the Rio De Janeiro Olympics of 2016; something which the Indian contingent would be keen to avoid at Tokyo.

Luka managed to qualify for the 800 meters race at Rio by beating the required qualifying time 2:01 minutes at an event in the run-up to the Olympics. Both Singh and Babar qualified for the 3000 meters steeplechase similarly. At the actual games at Rio, these were the only athletes who managed to still beat the qualifying times despite not making it to the podium. All other athletes including 800 meters national record holder Jinson Johnson fared so poorly in their respective events that their actual timings at Rio would not have even enabled them to qualify for the games in the first place. (See graphic)

In effect, while Indian track and field athletes seem to somehow qualify by meeting the Olympic qualification mark at home, they fail to make the cut at the actual event. Take the case of Dutee Chand who qualified for Tokyo on the basis of her world rankings unlike most other athletes who have to beat the qualifying time at domestic events to BE on the plane to Japan. In 2016, Chand had run 100 meters in 11:24 seconds at a championship in Kazhakastan by virtue of which she qualified for Rio (for which the qualifying time was set at 11:32 seconds). However, in Rio, Dutee finished 50th by clocking 11:69 seconds – considerably lower than qualifying time for even qualifying for the 100 meters race. India’s male runners – Johnson and Muhammad Anas Yahya too failed to beat the minimum qualifying times at Rio despite easily beating it at the qualifying championships at home. India’s 200 meters hope at Rio, Dharambir Singh was disqualified after failing a dope test. India’s discus, javelin and shot put athletes too, fell way below the qualifying mark at the actual Olympics.

Unlike Rio, where India had three male athletes qualifying for 200 meters, 400 meters and 800 meters, Tokyo will see no Indian athlete who has made the cut for the Olympics in these events. India had sent a 30 member athletics squad to Rio. For the Tokyo games, it is down to 26. In many ways, Indian athletes have qualified for far less events at Tokyo than they had at Rio. While qualifying times have been made more challenging by World Athletics for the Tokyo, many Indian athletes fell way off the mark while trying to qualify in the run-up to the games. With the games beginning on Friday, the athletics events will kick off a week later on July 31. Winning medals in track and field events may still be a tough task, but can India’s athletes atleast match the minimum qualifying times at the real event?