The 22nd edition of the Federation Cup National Senior Athletics gets underway on March 5 at the National Institute of Sports in Patiala as Indian athletes scramble to make the cut-offs for the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

The Athletics Federation of India has stated that it will announce the team for Gold Coast after the completion of the Federation Cup. After having fielded questions about selections for the 2017 World Championships contingent, the federation announced the criteria for the CWG and the Asian Games’ squads well in advance this time.

Being the last competition at which athletes can qualify for CWG, the meet assumes added importance for those looking to join already-qualified Neeraj Chopra, Nayana James and Navjeet Kaur Dhillon on the plane to Australia.

Steep cut-offs won’t make qualification any easier

The AFI had earlier stated that all Indian athletes will have to participate in and perform well in the Federation Cup, in order to stand any chance of making the contingent.

Chief National Coach Bahadur Singh had earlier indicated as much, “One should be able to repeat the qualification performance in the last meet before the CWG, the Federation Cup. You can call the event which started in Chennai (National Open) as part of the qualification system but if you don’t do well in the final competition, there is no use of that.”

The cut-offs set by the AFI will add to the edge surrounding the meet, as athletics will have the largest contingent as per the CGF’s quota allocation of 37 places, 24 men and 13 women.

The AFI’s qualifying marks, especially in the men’s 100 metres (10.16 seconds), women’s 100 metres (11.15s), men’s 200 m (20.35s), women’s 200 m (22.6s), men’s 5000 m (13:25 minutes), women’s 5000 m (15:09 min), men’s 10,000 m (28 min), women’s 10,000 m (32:30 min), women’s 100 m hurdles (13.05s), women’s 400 m hurdles (56s) among other events, will be tough ones to achieve.

Apart from Chopra, Nayana and Dhillon, shot-putter Tajinder Pal Singh Toor with a throw of 19.95 metres (CWG cut-off is 20.20 m), Kerala triple-jumper Rakesh Babu AV with a jump of 16.59 m (CWG mark 16.6 m) and long jumper Neena Pinto with 6.41 m (CWG standard 6.45 m) had come close to qualifying at the Indian Grand Prix held in Patiala last week.

Ones to watch out for

Despite his 82.88 m last week at the IGP, javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra will be hoping to replicate that once again with the qualification mark at 81.80 m. The junior world champion and Asian Athletics Championships gold medallist will also note that the winning mark in Glasgow four years ago was 83.87 m.

Chopra won’t be the only one returning from a stint outside the country as high jumper Tejaswin Shankar will be coming off the back of a good first season in the NCAA collegiate circuit and a new national record of 2.28 metres.

Shankar’s mark would have equalled the silver medal performance from four years ago. Of the three Indian athletes that did win medals at Glasgow, three-time CWG medallist Seema Punia (two silvers and a bronze) will take her place in the start list alongside Dhillon. The discus thrower had won a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games four years ago.

Nayana James and triple-jumper Arpinder Singh will also be looking to clear the benchmarks in Patiala. Arpinder, a Glasgow bronze medallist, had managed a 16.45 m jump in the IGP and like Rakesh Babu, will hope to qualify.

Siddhanth Thingalaya, India’s lone representative at the IAAF World Indoor Championships, will have little time to recover after finishing 31st out of 37 runners in the 60 metre hurdles at Birmingham. He will hope to better 13.55 seconds in the 110 metre hurdles in order to qualify for Gold Coast.

Loss of form and notable absentees

National record holders Muhammed Anas and Annu Rani will hope to put their Indian Grand Prix performances behind them as they will need to create new national records in order to qualify for Gold Coast.

Quarter-miler Anas, who finished fifth in his IGP heat with a time of 51.77 seconds, will have to go below 45.30 seconds, below the 45.32 second mark that he had set at the Indian Grand Prix last year. Annu Rani, who could only manage 56.90 metres and well below her record of 61.86, has the huge task of hitting 62.50 metres in front of her.

Anas, Anilda Thomas and Anu Raghavan are also unlikely to make their respective relay teams, with AFI secretary CK Valson stating that all runners, not part of the national camps, would not be considered.

For the country’s most famous 100 metre sprinter, the cut-off of 11.15 seconds is a tough one to try and manage. Dutee Chand, whose best is 11.24 seconds, would have to shave a massive portion off her best time to try and clinch a berth in Gold Coast.

Vikas Gowda, India’s sole gold medallist from Glasgow, will be missing the Federation Cup, in all probability, ending his chances of making the CWG squad. Another big name missing from the start list is Nirmala Sheoran, currently India’s fastest woman 400 metre runner and Asian Athletics Championships double gold medallist.

Lalita Babar, who qualified for the finals of the 3000 metre steeplechase in Rio, setting a new national record in the process, will also not be running in Patiala, opting out due to fitness issues.