Top 5 Medal prospects in Indian Athletics for Tokyo 2020

While the Indian sporting scene continues its recurring biennial slumber towards Indian athletics, to change the grim consequences of our poor planning that we were facing 15 months back, its essential to focus on the prospects for Tokyo Olympics 2020 well in advance.

Athletes must be groomed for the big stage and help can be taken from sports where Indian sportspersons have performed at the very top and competed for the highest honors. Cricketers and shuttlers can help guide the athletes to build the temperament for the big stage. Focus also must be given to achieve the qualifying marks early into the Olympic cycle so that they are conditioned to peak during the competition and not during the qualification stages.

While Government of India's Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) has included only 2 athletes in the 45 members, there has been big controversy regarding the selection process. So, here we look at the top 5 prospects that could end India's 120-year wait for an Olympic medal.

5. Beant Singh (800 m)

Beant Singh with his Asian Youth Championships gold in Doha.

The former Asian youth champion has showed steady growth, and has made the transition to the senior stage, although not as smoothly as expected. The expectations that gets attached to any young athletic sensation in India has weighed heavily on his performances. He hasn't been able to live up to the hype on the senior level.

Despite of these difficulties, Beant has made a steady improvement and has taken of 3 seconds of his best in last 2 years, and while he currently stands 6 seconds adrift of the podium, he can be a wildcard in 2024 given that the age is on his side and with proper training, he has the ability to repeat his junior level success on the world scale.

4. Race Walkers

Irfan during his record-breaking walk where he became first race walker to break the top 10.

Before the rise of the javelin throwers, race walkers were the most promising prospect for Indian track and field. It all started with KT Irfan's Top 10 finish at London 2012 that paved the way for success for the race walkers in both male and female sections and all the three disciplines. The 20km discipline is the most mouth-watering for a chance of success. While a podium maybe far-fetched, a top 5 performance or a double top 15 accomplishment is highly possible with India already recording sub 15 ranks in succession. KT Irfan,who is one of the only two track and field athletes to be included in TOPS, and Manish Singh have both continued their pre-Olympic form and performed well in 2017 and have their bests within a minute of the reigning Olympic Champion, which is nothing in long distance.

3. Lalita Babbar (3000m Steeplechase)

With the Bronze at the 2014 Asian Games where she broke Sudha Singh's record.

While there was a time in late 70s and early 80s when India used to be a force in men's 3000m steeplechase, the rise in the women's version of the sport in the past decade can be directly owed to the rivalry of Lalita Babbar and Sudha Singh. Their competitiveness has continued to push each other to new highs and smash each other's and sometimes their own National Records.

The current NR is in the name of Lalita babbar that she secured in the Rio finals while not being fully fit. While Babbar is a specialist in the discipline with a physique and built tailor-made for the event, Singh has owed much of her success to her stamina that comes from the long-distance marathon running that she simultaneously trains for. If they continue to push the boundaries for each other in the years to come, they can be serious contenders come 2020, which makes their exclusion from TOPS all the more contentious.

2. Davinder Singh Kang (Javelin Throw)

Kang with the Asian Athlectics Championship 2017 Bronze.

The ace Javelin thrower became the first finalist in his discipline to ever qualify for the finals at a World-level meet at the senior level in August 2017, a feat that his much more fancied compatriot, Neeraj Chopra failed to achieve. Yet he hasn't been included in the TOPS program. Even though the TOPS list came before the Worlds, the adjudicating committees must focus on the collective performance over a long period of time and competitions and not just a single important competition, and with the kind of performances Kang has thrown since Olympic are stunning and surprising. For a guy who was unable to breach the 80m mark last year regularly, he has consistently thrown 83m+ throws this year at almost each event. If he can sustain the current levels and his healthy rivalry with Chopra endures, it can pave the way for a rich future for javelin throwing in Indian Athletics.

1.Neeraj Chopra (Javelin Throw)

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Chopra at the Paris leg of the diamond league where he finished a fantastic fifth.

Who would have thought that India's top two medal prospects in 2020 would be Javelin throwers, a discipline in which the Indian National Record was lower than the event qualification mark for the 2016 Games. Yet the rise of reigning World junior Champion has made him the poster boy of Indian athletics. He has made a seamless transition into the senior circuit and has completely obliterated the former national record by over 4m. While much was expected of him at the World Championships this year, he was overshadowed by Kang's phenomenal performance. Yet it has been a good year for him as he qualified for the Diamond League finals and ranked eighth best in the world. Gary Calvert has worked hard with him over the past couple of years and if he continues the trajectory of his growth, we might have to omit junior from his title.

While medals and podiums matter, they aren't the sole parameters of success and performance. All the athletes must be supported and encouraged to achieve more Top 10s and final appearances. The road is long, and the path is tough, but then nothing good comes easy.