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India’s 2018 Asian Games champion in men’s shot put and Tokyo Olympian Tajinderpal Singh Toor, has confirmed his entry for the second edition of the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) National Throws Competition starting Wednesday (March 1) at the Inspire Institute of Sport in Bellary, Karnataka.
Toor, the 28-year-old Arjuna Awardee recently won gold at the Asian Indoor Athletics Championships held in Nur Sultan, Kazakhstan. The National Throws Competition will be his first 2023 outdoor competition. Karanveer Singh, who won silver in men’s shot put during the Asian Indoor held earlier this month, will also be seen in action, according to the AFI.
While men’s shot put will witness India's top two athletes, elite javelin throwers, including Rohit Yadav, will skip Bellary's outdoor competition. Tokyo Olympic Games champion Neeraj Chopra too will skip the national throws competition starting Wednesday in Karnataka.
Inderjeet Singh, the 2015 Asian champion in shot put, and Sahib Singh will be the other leading thrower who has confirmed their entries in the men’s shot put event.
Punjab’s Manpreet Kaur will be one to watch in the women’s shot put. Despite an unsteady performance graph in 2022, Manpreet managed to break the 18m barrier during a domestic meeting in Chennai last year with a throw of 18.06m. Manpreet’s performance dipped after the June 2022 Inter-State Athletics Championships and she failed to win a medal at the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games.
The second AFI National Jumps Competition will also be held in Bellary on Thursday (March 2). Top jumpers, at least in men’s triple jump will be seen in action during the two-day competition.
Eldhose Paul, the 2022 World Athletics Championships finalist and Commonwealth Games champion in the triple jump, will lead a pack of jumpers at the National Jumps Competition. Abdulla Aboobacker, Praveen Chithravel, and Karthik Unnikrishnan are the other top triple jumpers in the race for a podium finish.
The Olympian and national record holder in men’s long jump, Murali Sreeshankar, will skip the National Jumps Competition. In Sreeshankar's absence, Jeswin Aldrin and Muhammed Anees Yahiya will be the main attraction in the men’s long jump.
