With less than four months to go for Rio Games, a slew of stars, former champions and upcoming athletes will go all out to clinch Olympic qualification berths when the second Indian Grand Prix gets underway at the NS NIS Patiala stadium tomorrow.
After the first Indian GP Series and the Federation Cup were held on April 24 and April 28-30 respectively in JLN Stadium here, the second leg of Indian GP will provide the athletes another chance to book their Olympics berths in the one day long competition.
There is high expectations from sprinter Dutee Chand, who created a new National Record in the women's 100 metres sprint, clocking 11.33sec on the opening day of the Federation Cup National Senior Athletics Championships.
The 20-year-old Chand smashed the 16-year-old record of Rachita Mistry (11.38sec), but missed the 2016 Olympics qualification berth by a hundredth of a second. The Rio qualification mark for women's 100m is 11.32sec.
Rajiv Arokia created the National record in Men's 400m event clocking 45.47s to erase the 12-year old mark of 45.48s created by KM Binu in 2004. Whereas in Women's 400m event Anilda Thomas clocked 52.40s to finish first in the Federation Cup but both missed the Olympics qualification mark of 45.40s and 52.20s respectively.
Ace discus thrower Krishna Poonia, the first Indian women to win a Gold Medal in athletics at the Commonwealth Games, finished sixth in the 2012 London Olympics and is returning to action after a gap of two years, post-surgery.
Though she couldn't qualify in first leg of Indian GP and Federation Cup earlier, Poonia will be competing in Indian to be part of the Rio contingent.
While Sudha Singh was the only athlete to make the qualification grade in the recently-concluded Federation Cup, it is expected that other athletes will push themselves at in the 2nd Indian Grand Prix at Patiala.
Post Grand Prix some of the national campers are schedule to participate in competition abroad to seek the qualification.
Overall, more than 130 athletes are expected to take part in 18 events in the second leg of Indian GP.
The best 8 athletes of 20th National Federation Senior Athletics Championships in each event will participate in the championships.
The following events will be conducted in Indian GP II:
Men: 1) 100m, 2) 400m, 3) 1500m, 4) 5000m, 5) 400m hurdles 6) long jump, 7) triple jump, 8) shot put, 9) Javelin throw, 10) Discus throw
Women: 1)100m 2)400m 3)1500m 4)5000m 5)long jump 6) triple jump 7)Javelin throw, 8)Discus throw.
