New Delhi: Neeraj Chopra entering the pantheon of greats was the only silver lining in the Indian track and field performances at the Paris Olympics. Avinash Sable was the only other athlete from the country to make the final, in the 3000m steeplechase where he finished 11th. The squad of 29 athletes had landed in Paris with fanfare, but failed to live up to the hype.

The men’s 4x400m relay team (Muhammed Anas Yahiya, Muhammed Ajmal, Amoj Jacob and Rajesh Ramesh) ran their season’s best of 3:00.58secs and narrowly missed out on qualification for the final. They had produced some stunning results in the build-up to the Olympics, including a jaw-dropping fifth place in the 2023 world championships in Budapest (2:59:92s). In the qualification heat at the worlds, the quartet had stitched a new Asian record (2:59.05s). However, at the Paris Olympics, the Japan men’s relay team whose record was broken by India, regained their Asian supremacy by finishing fifth in the final with a new continental record (2:58.33). Japan, in fact, improved on their all-time best twice – they clocked 2:59.48 in the heats.

That’s how cut throat the competition is at the Olympics. Unless athletes record their personal bests, national records or at least a season’s best – Neeraj Chopra registered his best two throws of the season (89.45m-final, 89.34m-qualifying) at the Games – it becomes tough to keep pace with the rest of the world.

Since Chopra’s historic gold medal in the Tokyo Olympics, the spotlight has been on the performance of our track and field athletes. At the 2022 Commonwealth Games, there were some eye-catching performances, be it Sable’s silver medal or triple jumpers Eldhose Paul and Abdulla Abboobacker’s 1-2 podium finish, or Priyanka Goswami’s silver in race walking. Impressive showing at the Asian Games where India won 29 medals (6-14-9) further shored up Indian hopes. Most of the top track and field athletes trained abroad, competed in world events, and thus were expected to deliver their best at the biggest stage.

However, besides Neeraj and Sable none could qualify for the final. The rest of the Indian campaign ended in a whimper. Athletes who had promised big in the build up to the Olympics were simply not able to live up to expectations.

“The world standards of qualifying are so high that to achieve that we have to keep peaking, or even to qualify through rankings. So, their main focus is always qualifying for the Olympics. Once you have peaked it is difficult to have another in close proximity,” Olympian shot putter Om Prakash Karhana said.

“I think our focus remains on winning medals because it gives our athletes incentives, jobs, rewards. So, we focus more on medals than planning on how to improve performance,” says Karhana, who competed in the 2012 London Olympics.”

Let’s start with javelin – the event that the country is now known for in athletics thanks to Chopra. The performance of Kishore Kumar Jena, who astonished one and all with an extraordinary throw of 87.54m at the Asian Games, winning silver behind Neeraj, has only gone downhill. Jena had a stellar 2023 and qualified for the world championships. This year, he has struggled to touch even 80m. In Paris, he finished 18th (80.73m) and could not qualify for the final.

India could have had a third thrower at the Olympics but DP Manu, who was high in the world rankings, failed a dope test close to the Games.

Two-time Asian Games shot put champion Tajinderpal Singh Toor continued to disappoint at major global meets. Toor was far off his personal best of 21.77m, which was an Asian record till Mohammed Tolo of Saudi Arabia bettered it (21.80m) in June. In Paris, Toor recorded just one legal throw of 18.05m and finished 29th overall.

Reigning Asian Games champion Annu Rani too failed to deliver in javelin. Her best throw of 55.30m was way off her PB of 63.82m (to be ratified), or Hangzhou gold medal throw of 62.92m last year. The 31-year-old was training in Germany after the Asian Games under foreign coach Werner Daniels.

If India had hopes from the jumpers, they were dashed after the injury to long jumper Murali Sreeshankar.

Jeswin Aldrin has surprisingly not been able to come anywhere close to his national record of 8.42m, achieved in March last year. Aldrin, who trains under JSW’s Cuban coach Yoandri Betanzos, had competed in two world championships and Asian Games during this cycle. In Paris, his jump of 7.61m saw him finish 26th among 33 competitors. The silver, 8.36m by Wayne Pinnock, and bronze (8.34m by Mattia Furlani) fell well within his national mark. Triple jumper Praveen Chithravel, who achieved his national of 17.37m last year, had a best jump of only 16.25m.

Parul Chaudhary, Asian Games gold (5,000m) and silver (steeplechase) medallist, clocked her season’s best in both the events, but it was not good enough for her to qualify. The women’s relay team clocked 3:32.51 and finished eighth and last in the heats. Hurdler Jyothi Yarrajo could not progress to the 100m hurdles semi-finals, clocking 13.16secs in the heats to come seventh and 13.17secs in the repechage for a fourth position.

Australian race walker Jemima Montag, who won gold at the Birmingham CWG ahead of Priyanka (10km race walk), won two bronze medals from Paris –in the 20km race walk (1:26:25) and in the marathon walk relay (with Rhydian Cowley 2:51:38). Priyanka finished 41st (1:39:55) in the individual event while the Priyanka and Suraj Panwar did not finish in the mixed team event.

It will be important for the Athletics Federation of India to review these results before preparations begin for LA 2028.

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