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A 17-member Indian contingent will participate in the 15th edition of the IAAF World Championships, that will take place at the Bird’s Nest stadium in Beijing between August 22nd and 30th.
India’s hopes will be pinned on Inderjeet Singh, who has won a staggering 8 gold medals in 2015, including 3 straight medals in each of the three legs of the Asian Grand Prix Games in June.
Another man on whom there will a lot of expectations is Vikas Gowda. The Mysore-born athlete qualified for the Championships after his effort of 65.75m at the Triton Invitational at La Jolla San Diego in April. Gowda will be looking to put in a good performance and in the process, seal a berth in next year’s Rio Olympics.
Also in contention will be Lalita Babar, who will look to carry forward her impressive form after securing the gold at the Asian Athletics Championships, which helped her to qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Poovamma, Luka lead charge in the relay
All eyes will be on MR Poovamma, who won silver at the Asian Athletics Championships in the 400m, and on Tintu Luka, who won gold in the 800m. Also in the fray will be the 4x400m relay team, which will see Poovamma team up with Debashree Mazumdar, Anu Raghavan and Jisna Matthew and Luka.
The 20km walk Men’s team comprises of Gurmeet Singh, Baljinder Singh and Chandan Singh while the women’s camapign will be led by Khushbir Kaur and Sapna while the Men’s 50km walk will have Sandeep Kumar and Manish Kumar Rawat in the fray.
India will also two represenatations in the Marathon, with OP Jaisha and Sudha Singh representing the country.
Overall, one can hope for India to put in a good performance in this edition of the Championships, considering that most of the athletes are coming into the competition in good form. But like any other event, the final medal haul will depend upon who rises to the occasion and performs on that particular day; the country’s fans will be hoping that it will be an Indian athlete who would do that in more event than one.
