National Junior Athletics Championships 2024: AFI puts restrictions in few events for the first time to discourage early specialisation
National Junior Athletics Championships 2024: AFI puts restrictions in few events for the first time to discourage early specialisation
Several up-and-coming athletes, including under-20 National record holder pole vaulter Dev Meena and South Asian junior championships silver medallist 100m hurdler Sabita Toppo, promise quality action in the 39 th National junior athletics championships starting here on Saturday.
With the Kalinga Stadium buzzing due to the presence of around 2000 athletes from four age groups, the event, which got postponed in October due to a cyclone threat, will provide the youngsters a platform to assess themselves. It will also test some who aspire to compete in the inter-university meet and the National Games.
For the first time, the meet will see restrictions in a few events for under-14, under-16 and under-18 athletes as the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) is making efforts to discourage early specialisation and facilitate young athletes’ proper growth.
“For example, the approach for under-14 and under-16 long jumpers will be five meters and there will be scissors movement, and no Fosbury flop for high jumpers or no triple jump for under-18 athletes. Specialisation at an early age hinders the growth of an athlete and the AFI has taken this initiative to curb that,” said Shyam Sundar, a coach working for Odisha Government’s athletics programme.
The emergence of javelin throwers after the success of two-time Olympic medallist Neeraj Chopra is fascinating. The presence of Asian under-20 gold and silver medallists Deepanshu Sharma (personal best 71.21m) and Rohan Yadav (p.b. 70.03m), respectively among men and National Open bronze medallist Deepika (p.b. 55.23m) among women may produce gripping action.
Seventeen-year-old Amanat Kamboj, who bagged an Asian under-20 silver with a personal best of 50.45m, will be a prominent face in discus.
Meena, who set the under-20 mark of 5.20m but narrowly missed the National record of 5.31m at the National under-23 meet in Patna, will be keen to attain a new high.
Sabita, who clocked her personal best (13.96) earlier this year, sounded keen to lower her time further on her home track.
