Two Dakshina Kannada girls chosen for the Commonwealth Games

Two Dakshina Kannada girls chosen for the Commonwealth Games

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangalore, September 25: Will Dakshina Kannada athletes M.R. Poovamma and Rebecca Jose get a chance to represent India in the XIX Commonwealth Games to be held in New Delhi next month?

Poovamma

 

Rebecca Jose

This is the question that is doing the rounds among sports enthusiasts in the district.

 

District Sports School’s athletics coach Vasanthakumar said sportspersons and sports enthusiasts in Mangala Stadium frequently ask him questions about the prospects of the two athletes who are in the 90-member squad announced for the Games by the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) on August 31.

 

Rebecca is among the eight athletes chosen for 4x100 m dash, and Poovamma is among the 10 members selected for 4x400 m race.

 

Final selection

 

India’s athletics coach N. Ramesh said the final selection of athletes would depend on their form on the day of the events.

 

Mr. Vasanthakumar said the names of the final six members would be announced 24 hours before the race and the final four one hour before the event.

 

Feat

 

Rebecca stood first in the trials held a week ago at Sri Kanteerava Stadium in Bangalore by finishing the 100 m race in her career best 11.30 seconds.

 

“My daughter is working hard. With God’s grace, she may get a chance to run for India,” said Rebecca’s mother, Omana Jose, who lives in Sullia.

 

Mr. Vasanthakumar pointed out that Rebecca has earlier won the Junior National Championship, National Inter-Zonal Championship and the All-India Rural Sports Championship.

 

In Ukraine

 

Poovamma, who is undergoing training in Ukraine, was in the relay squad that represented India in the Beijing Olympics, but did not get a chance to participate in the race. She has to her credited a fair amount of international exposure.

 

She is training under Yuri Ogorodnik of Ukraine along with other members of the relay squad. The team is expected to return to India by September 30, according to Poovamma’s father, Machettira G. Raju. “She is happy with the training in Ukraine,” he said. In fact, she has trained under the same coach earlier.

 

Mr. Raju said the personal best for Poovamma in 400 m race was 54.32 seconds recorded during the selection trials in Patiala.

 

According to a report posted on the AFI website, India has won a gold medal (Milkha Singh in 400 yards dash in 1958), five silver medals and four bronze medals in track and field events in the Commonwealth Games so far.

 

Athletics federation announces 92-member squad for CWG

 

New Delhi, The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) Tuesday announced a 92-member squad for the Oct 3-14 Commonwealth Games.

 

The Indian athletes will compete in 45 of the 46 events during the Games. India will not be participating in the women’s pole-vault as it is still far from matching the international standards.

 

The final team for men and women 20km event and relay will be decided later and it will take the number of athletes to 142. The selection of athletes for all the four relays will take place after Sep 15.

 

‘As per the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) rules, we can select the entries for the relay from our 92-man squad, so the entries will be filled for everyone,’ AFI officiating officer Ravinder Chaudhry said.

 

‘Also, according to IAAF we can choose the team 15 days before the Games, so we have kept more players and will select the final team after assessing their performance later.’

 

Chaudhry said they are expecting more medals from women athletes in the October Games.

 

‘Women athletes have a better chance than their men counterparts. We are expecting good performance from women in discuss throw, 4x 400m relay, triple jump, 800m and 10,000m event while from men in shot-put, discuss and triple jump,’ he said.

 

Chaudhry said that legendry athlete P.T. Usha’s student Tintu Luka, who ran her personal best of 2:00.79 to finish eighth in the 800m race in the final leg of the Diamond League series in Brussels, Belgium, will be one of the stars to look out for.

 

In the men’s 800 metres, Pankaj Dimri will the one to look out for, he said.

 

The teams for Asian Games will be finalised on the basis of their performance in Commonwealth Games.

 

Team (men):

 

100m, 4×100m: Abdul Najib Qureshi, B.G. Nagaraj, Krishna Kumar Rane, Hemant Kirulkar Rahamattulla Molla, Shameer mon, Ritesh Anand, Manikandaraj, S. Sathya

 

200m: Dharambir Haryana, Abdul Najib Qureshi,

 

400m, 4×400m: Kunhi Mohammad, Vinay Chaudhry, J. Premanand, Harpreet Singh, V.B. Bineesh, Jithin Paul, Bibin Mathew , S.K. Mortaja,

 

800m: Pankaj Dimri, P. Francis Sagayaraj, Manjit Singh

 

1500m: Sandeep Karan Singh, C. Hamza

 

5000m: Sunil Singh, Sandeep Batham

 

10,000m: Sunil Singh

 

110m Hurdles: Siddhanth Thingalaya

 

400m Hurdles: Joseph Abraham

 

3000m Steeplechase: Elam Singh, Ramachandran

 

Marathon: Bining L.

 

Shotput: Om Prakash, Sourav Vij

 

Discus: Vikas Gowda

 

Javelin: Kashi Nath Karnataka, Samareet Singh

 

Hammer: Chandrodaya Narayan

 

Long Jump: Maha Singh, Ankit Sharma, Hari Krishnan M

 

Triple Jump: Renjith Maheshwari, Amarjit Singh

 

High Jump: Nikhil Chitrasau, Hari Shanker Roy

 

Pole Vault: Gajanan Upadhyay

 

Decathlon: Bhartinder Singh, P.J. Vinod

 

Team (women):

 

100m, 4×100m: S. Geetha, H.M. Jyothi, P.K. Priya. Sarbani Nanda, Rebecca Jose, Nirupama Sunderraj, Arjina Khatun, Ch Shanthi

 

200m: H.M. Jyothi, S. Geetha

 

400m, 4×400m: Mandeep Kaur, Jaunu Murmu, Ashwini AC, Sini Jose, Tiana Mary Thomas, Chitra K. Soman, Mridula K, MR Poovamma, Priyanka Panwar, Manjit Kaur

 

800m: Tintu Luka, Sinimol Paulose

 

1500m: Shushma Devi Haryana, Jhuma Khatun West Bengal, O.P. Jaisha

 

5000m: Kavita Raut, Preeja Sreedharan Kerala, Laita Babar

 

10000m: Preeja Sreedharan, Kavita Raut

 

100m Hurdle: G. Gayathry

 

400m Hurdle: Jauna Murmu, Ashwani AC Karnataka

 

3000m Steeplechase: O.P. Jaisha, Sudha Singh, Priyanka Patel

 

Marathon: Sukanya Mall Singh

 

Discus: Krishna Poonia, Harwant Kaur, Seema Antil

 

Shotput: Manpreet Kaur

 

Javelin: Saraswathi S.

 

Hammer: Hardeep Kaur

 

Long Jump: Mayookha Johny, Prajusha MA, Reshmi Bose

 

Triple Jump: Mayookha Johny, Prajusha MA, G. Gayathri

High Jump: Kavya Muthanna, Sahana Kumari

 

Heptathlon: Promila Aiyappa, Sushmita Singha Roy, Navpreet Kaur