National Under-23 Athletics Championships: 3000m steeplechase returns to Delhi after three decades, pole vault canned due to lack of infrastructure

The 3000-meter steeplechase track event was in the spotlight in last month’s Tokyo Olympic Games for the Indian contingent. Avinash Sable further improved his own national record to 8 minutes and 18.12 seconds.

The 3000m steeplechase track event is a grueling event with 28 hurdles and seven water jumps. It has become a talking point among the Delhi athletics fraternity recently.

The event is being organized by the Delhi State Athletics Association after a gap of more than 30 years. It will be conducted at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium (JNS) on Tuesday to select state athletes for the next week’s National Under-23 Athletics Championships.

Rupinder Singh, a former national-level athlete and now a part-time coach, has talked about the difficulties in organizing the event. He told Sportskeeda:

“It must have been more than three decades since the steeplechase event hasn’t been part of the Delhi state athletics body. But a steeplechase event was organised on Tuesday to select state athletes for the upcoming national meet.”

The inaugural edition of the National U23 Athletics Championships is scheduled to be held from September 27 to 29 in Delhi. It was earlier scheduled to be held in Chennai. However, the Tamil Nadu government didn’t give green signal to organize the national meet and so it was shifted to Delhi.

The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) has set minimum qualification standards for athletes to compete at the National U23 Athletics Championships. Hence it is mandatory to furnish certificates as proof to support their entry.

Delhi athletes who want to compete in the steeplechase approached the Delhi state athletics body to organize the event. They were otherwise running the risk of missing the steeplechase event at next week’s national U23 competition.

The organizing committee in Delhi has failed to do a good job

To meet the September 21 deadline to send online entries, the Delhi state hurriedly organized the 3000m steeplechase trials at the JNS to avoid further embarrassment. Sandeep Mehta, secretary of the Delhi State Athletics Association wasn’t available for his comments.

Sumit Kumar ran solo in the men’s group and clocked 9:07 seconds. He bettered the qualifying standard of 9:20 seconds set by the AFI to compete in the National U23 Athletics Championships.

In the women’s category Shashi Lata was the only athlete registered for the race. She clocked 11:07 seconds and qualified for the National U23 Athletics Championships.

The Delhi State Athletics Association ignored the steeplechase event during a state competition conducted in the first week of September. A senior athlete from Delhi told Sportskeeda:

“Instead of incorporating steeplechase in the main state competition conducted in the first week of September, a separate selection trials were conducted on Tuesday."

The Pole vault event was also scrapped from the state competition. The reason was the failure of the state athletics body to arrange the pole vault landing pit for the competition.