Road to Paris 2024: Neeraj Chopra and Co. gear up to defend the Indian athletics dream

Neeraj Chopra’s historic gold medal win in men’s javelin throw at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics put Indian athletics under the spotlight and the country’s track and field athletes have grown strength to strength since.

With stellar showings at major international meets like the Asian Games, Commonwealth Games, Asian Athletics Championships, the Diamond League and World Championships over the past couple of years, Indian athletics has put the world on notice.

However, the true litmus test of what has seemed like exponential growth so far will happen at the Paris 2024 Olympics later this year and a good showing at the upcoming Summer Games can establish India as a force in world athletics.

With the qualification window for Paris 2024 at its final stretch, let’s take a look at what to expect from Indian track and field stars in the lead-up to the big test at the banks of the river Seine.

So far, 13 Indian athletes have already breached the qualification standards for the Paris 2024 Olympics.

India’s race walk conundrum, a good one

Interestingly, seven of the 13 have been in the men’s 20km race walk event courtesy Akshdeep Singh, Vikas Singh, Paramjeet Bisht, Suraj Panwar, Servin Sebastian, Arshpreet Singh and Ram Baboo.

However, with a country allowed to field a maximum of three athletes in each event, the Athletics Federation of India faces an interesting predicament in selecting which three will board the flight to Paris come July.

While a trial might be the cards to come up with the shortlist, good performances on the international stage might just help tip the scale.

Suraj Panwar, Ram Baboo, Vikash Singh, Servin S, Arshpreet Singh will be seen competing at the World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships in Antalya, Turkiye. The World Athletics Race Walking Tour events till June will also present several opportunities for the contenders to stake claim on the three spots.

That being said, here’s a look at the key stats for all seven in the lead-up to Paris 2024.

Barring Vikas and Paramjeet, the remaining five achieved their personal best timings this year, including Akshdeep’s Singh’s 1:19:38 mark at the Indian Open in Chandigarh, which is the standing national record in the men’s 20km race walk.

Ram Baboo, the men’s 35km race walk national record holder and an Asian Games bronze medallist, also presents an interesting prospect.

India also fielded a full quota of three in men’s race walk at Tokyo 2020 with KT Irfan, Sandeep Kumar and Rahul Rohilla.

In women’s 20km race walk, Priyanka Goswami, meanwhile, looks set to compete in her second Olympics after Tokyo 2020.

Goswami, who holds the Indian national record of 1:28:45 in the event, clocked her season’s best time of 1:29:48 to finish seventh at the Chinese Race Walking Grand Prix in Taicang, the People’s Republic of China, this March.

While it was the third-best mark in her career, it was the best timing for the Indian race walker abroad and achieving it at a World Athletics Race Walking Tour gold label meet will do wonders for her confidence.

With five other World Athletics Race Walking Tour meets, one each in the USA, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Slovakia scheduled between April and May, the Indian athlete may be tempted to take the opportunities to hone her preparations ahead of Paris 2024 on foreign soil.

India’s Bhawna Jat (world No. 54) and Munita Prajapati (53) also have a fighting chance to qualify for Paris 2024 based on rankings. Even if they fail to meet the entry standards before the qualification window for race walk ends on June 30, a bump in rankings can see them break into the 48-woman shortlist.

Headline act: Neeraj Chopra and India’s javelin stars

Needless to say, all eyes will be on Neeraj Chopra defending his crown at Paris 2024.

Since his landmark top podium finish in men’s javelin throw at Tokyo 2020, Neeraj has won the Diamond League trophy in 2022, became the world champion in 2023 and successfully defended his Asian Games crown at Hangzhou.

Chopra confirmed his Olympic title defence by breaching the Paris 2024 entry standard in the qualifying round of the Budapest World Championships last year before creating history in the final, becoming the first senior Indian athletics world champion in history.

Heading into Paris 2024, Neeraj is set to start his Olympic year campaign at the Doha Diamond League on May 10 and his entry in the Paavo Nurmi Games, a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold level event in Finland on June 18, has also been confirmed.

With the men’s javelin throw competition at Paris 2024 scheduled in early August, the Paris leg of the Diamond League, on July 7, will give Neeraj the perfect opportunity to test himself against a top-class field and acclimatise before his big title defence.

Team Chopra will pace the Indian javelin thrower before the upcoming Summer Games to avoid any injuries.

Neeraj, whose personal best of 89.94m is the standing Indian national record, will also have breaching the 90m mark on the back of his mind to get the psychological barrier out of the way.

The men’s javelin throw field at Paris 2024 is expected to have multiple members of the 90+ club, including Tokyo 2020 silver medallist Jakub Vadlejch of Czechia, Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem, former world champion Anderson Peters and Germany’s Max Dehning, the latest entrant to the elite group.

Dehning, just 19 years old, became the youngest javelin thrower to breach the coveted 90m mark at the German Winter Throwing Championships in Werferzentrum Brandberge in February. His 90.20m is still the world-leading javelin throw this year.

Joining Neeraj’s quest for gold at Paris will be compatriot Kishore Jena, who gave the reigning world and Olympic champion a run for his money at the Hangzhou Asian Games last year. The Odisha athlete eventually settled for silver and breached the Paris 2024 qualifying mark with a personal best of 87.54m.

Like Neeraj, Jena is also expected to start his season in Doha, which will also be his Diamond League debut. The 28-year-old, who had a personal best of 78.05m after the 2022 season, has shown exponential growth and breached the 80m mark seven times in 2023.

“It's commendable the way Kishore has shown progress, especially at the big stages like the World Championships and Asian Games, and the way he has improved his distance,” Neeraj had gushed about his fellow countryman in a recent interview. “I've been stuck between 88 and 90m since 2018 and the way he is performing, he can breach the 90m mark before me.”

Barring any major incidents, Manu DP is also in line to join Neeraj and Jena at Paris 2024. Manu is yet to breach the qualifying standard of 85.50m in the qualification window but is placed comfortably in the 11th spot in the Road to Paris world rankings, which should be enough to earn him a ticket to Paris.

Like Manu, Annu Rani, ranked 21st in the women’s javelin Road to Paris rankings, is also expected to make the cut and ensure India has at least one athlete in both javelin throw competitions at Paris 2024.

The 31-year-old holds India’s national record of 63.82m but has endured a difficult year and a half. She was unable to breach the 60m mark for almost a year before curbing the trend at the Asian Games last October, where she managed 62.92m to win gold.

Rani hasn’t competed since her Hangzhou high but will need to get some events under her belt to build up momentum ahead of Paris 2024.

The Indian javelin thrower is in Germany’s Leichtathletik Gemeinschaft Offenburg Centre to train under foreign athletics coach Werner Daniels and will be aiming to cross the 65m mark to try and be in medal contention at Paris.

At Tokyo 2020, Australia’s Kelsey-Lee Barber won the bronze medal with a 64.56m while China’s Liu Shiying won the gold with 66.34m. Interestingly, Rani had beaten Shiying (5th) en route to her Asian Games gold at Hangzhou.

With her base in Germany, Rani will have plenty of opportunities to compete in various competitions across Europe and finetune her skills.

Jeswin Aldrin to soften Sreeshankar blow?

Murali Sreeshankar secured a quota for Paris 2024 after breaching the men’s long jump Olympic qualifying standard of 8.27m at the Asian Athletics Championships in Bangkok, Thailand last year. He recorded 8.37m at the meet to claim silver.

However, in a heartbreaking development, Sreeshankar’s 2024 season was cut short due to a knee injury, which ruled him out of the Summer Games.

In Sreeshankar’s absence, Jeswin Aldrin will bear India’s hopes in the men’s long jump. Aldrin holds India’s national record of 8.42m but hasn’t been able to breach the Olympic entry standard since the athletics qualification window came into effect from July 1 last year.

Aldrin, in fact, has struggled for form and hasn’t breached the 8m mark since the qualifying rounds at the Budapest World Athletics Championships in August last year. The Indian long jumper has already competed in four different meets in 2024 and managed a best leap of 7.83m in Belgrade, Serbia so far.

Ranked 24th, Aldrin is still within the top 32 and stands to secure a spot at the 2024 Paris Olympics based on world rankings. However, he will need to hold on till the window closes on June 30.

Breaching the entry standard presents a far safer option, and Aldrin can potentially target domestic meets like the four Indian Grand Prix events and the Federation Cup to try and achieve the qualifying mark under familiar conditions.

Indian representation in the women’s long jump, however, seems like a longer shot with Shaili Singh, at world No. 41, outside the cut-off mark of 32. She will also need to add 0.10m to her personal best of 6.76m to meet the Paris 2024 women’s long jump qualifying mark.

Big year for Sable and Parul

Steeplechasers Avinash Sable and Parul Chaudhary are the two other Indian track and field athletes who have already breached the qualifying standards for Paris 2024.

Parul enjoyed a breakthrough season last year and is the reigning Asian champion. She won a silver medal in the women’s 3000m steeplechase race at the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games while claiming a gold in the 5000m. Parul also reset the national record in her event courtesy a 9:15.31s run at the 2023 Budapest World Championships.

Similarly, Sable established himself as a true star of Indian athletics over the past couple of years.

After a historic silver at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, Sable won the gold medal at the Asian Games in Hangzhou in the 3000m steeplechase and followed it up with a silver in the 5000m. He also holds India’s national record in both events.

Interestingly, though, neither Sable nor Parul has competed in a single steeplechase race this year. Both athletes competed in their respective 10,000m races at The Ten in Florida in March but that has been the only piece of competitive action for either athlete so far this year.

Both Parul and Sable are currently training at a high-altitude centre in Colorado Springs under coach Scott Simmons and it will be interesting to see when they decide to hit the tracks.

Fans can expect to see Sable race in the Diamond League series before Paris 2024 with the Doha, Marrakech, Stockholm and Paris legs all featuring the men’s 3000m steeplechase race.

Parul’s rise over the past year, meanwhile, has been so impressive that Indian track and field legend Anju Bobby George identified the steeplechaser as one to watch out for in Paris.

Besides the ones who have already met the qualifying standards, multiple Indian track and field athletes and teams are in contention to make the cut through rankings.

If the qualifying window ended today, here’s the full list of athletes who would qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympics based on their Road to Paris rankings.

*List as of April 20, 2024

Jyoti Yarraji will be one to look out for in the coming months.

The Indian athlete, who won a silver medal at the Asian Games in Hangzhou last year, fell just 0.01 seconds short of the Paris 2024 women’s 100m hurdles entry standard of 12.77 during the World University Games in Chengdu last August.

The mark still stands as the national record in the event and Jyothi needs to rewrite it just one more time before June 30 to meet the Paris mark.

The women’s 4x400m relay team, 17th in the top list, is also just one place below the cut-off mark while the mixed team is four places off. The top 16 in the relay tops list qualify for Paris 2024.