Thiruvananthapuram: Long jumper M Sreeshankar’s return to competition after the Olympic Games in Tokyo last year will be watched with more than cursory interest when he lines up in the first AFI National Open Jumps Competition at the Chandrasekharan Nair Police Stadium here on Tuesday.
As many as 75 athletes, including 29 women, will compete in the eight events in the maiden Jumps meet, conceived by the Athletics Federation of India to give the athletes a competition at the start of the season.
Such a meet will enable the athletes to assess their form in a competitive environment and make the necessary adjustments for the season ahead.
Sreeshankar’s battle with Kerala team-mate Muhammed Anees Yahiya can result in a high quality on show at the long jump pit,
though it will be the first competition and as such many athletes could be using the meet as part of their training for the bigger competitions that follow in the season. Yugant Shekhar Singh would be eager to make it a triangular contest.
The men’s Triple Jump also promises to be an exciting contest. The 2018 Asian Games gold medalist Arpinder Singh will be eager to battle it out with the likes of Abdulla Aboobacker, Karthik Unnikrishnan, Eldhose Paul and Gaily Venister Devasahayam, each of whom topped his best showing of 15.91m last year.
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Sandra Babu and Ancy Sojan, two of the top five women’s Long Jumpers last season, would have expected that they would be locked in a thrilling duel, but Nayana James is slated to return to her first competition after August 2019. The last-named is the only jumper in the field with a personal best past the 6.50m mark.
