The 18th edition of Asian Games is set to begin in Jakarta and Palembang on August 18, with 572 Indian sportspersons in contention for medals. After a successful Commonwealth Games, in which India finished third on the table with 66 medals – 26 gold, 20 silver and 20 bronze – the expectations from the Indian contingent are high.
Out of the 572 Indian sportspersons in Indonesia, 51 will compete in athletics. Eight out of those 51 will take part in men’s fields events. Here are their profiles:
Neeraj Chopra
Date of Birth: December 24, 1997
Event at Asian Games: Javelin Throw
Past performance (if any): N/A
Best performance so far: Gold at Gold Coast Commonwealth Games (2018), Gold at Junior World Championships (2016), Gold at Asian Athletics Championships (2017)
Brief Description: The poster boy of Indian athletics needs very little introduction. Neeraj Chopra’s junior world record performance in Bydgoszcz in Poland made him India’s first individual global gold medallist in athletics at any level. Having first learned the art of throwing off YouTube, Chopra solidified his claim as Indian athletics’ next big champion by winning gold at the Commonwealth Games in 2018. Qualifying for the finals of the Diamond League in Zurich, he capped his maiden season in the competition, shattering his own national record in Doha with a throw of 87.43 metres. Chopra will start as one of India’s biggest medal hopefuls and will also lead the Indian contingent as its flagbearer.
Shivpal Singh
Date of Birth: July 6, 1995
Event at Asian Games: Javelin Throw
Past performance (if any): N/A
Best performance so far: Gold at National Inter-State Athletics Championships in Guwahati (2018)
Brief Description: Shivpal Singh is the latest Indian entrant into the 80-metre plus club as he qualified for the Asian Games by winning gold at the National Inter-State Championships in Guwahati, throwing 82.28 metres. Training under Kashinath Naik at the National Institute of Sports in Patiala, also the coach of Indian women’s record holder Annu Rani, Shivpal heads into the Asian Games as the number four thrower in the continent. Overlooked for a training stint in Finland by national coach Uwe Hohn, Shivpal responded with a big win in Guwahati. The 23-year-old suffered a serious injury in 2016 which saw him ruled out for more than six months. The Varanasi-born thrower was introduced to the sport by his uncle, himself a national champion in the sport.
Sreeshankar M
Date of Birth: March 27, 1999
Event at Asian Games: Long Jump
Past performance (if any): N/A
Best performance so far: Gold at the Federation Cup in Patiala (2018), Gold at the National Inter-State Athletics Championships in Guwahati (2018)
Brief Description: Sreeshankar Murali’s first appearance at the Asian Games will also be the highest level at which he will ever have competed after last month’s sixth-place at the junior World Athletics Championships. As such, all eyes will be on the 19-year-old jumper from Coimbatore to see if he can live up to the hype and earn a place in India’s next big athletics hopefuls club, joining Neeraj Chopra, Hima Das and Tejaswin Shankar. After comprehensively winning the Federation Cup with a personal best of 7.99 metres, Sreeshankar should have made his bow at Gold Coast. However, an error by the federation in registration and a bout of appendicitis later put paid to his hopes of participating at Gold Coast. Trained by Bobby George, Sreeshankar was born to former triple jumper and runner S Murali and former 800 metre runner K Bijimol, both national-level athletes.
Arpinder Singh
Date of Birth: December 30, 1992
Event at Asian Games: Triple Jump
Past performance (if any): 5th at Incheon Asian Games (2014)
Best performance so far: Bronze at Glasgow Commonwealth Games (2014), Bronze at Pune Asian Championships (2013)
Brief Description: Arpinder Singh is only member of the men’s athletics field team to have participated at a prior Asian Games event. The 25-year-old finished fifth at Incheon, with a jump of 16.41 metres. Undoubtedly India’s number one triple jumper currently, the National Inter State Championships in Patiala in 2010 was when Arpinder broke onto the scene, finishing second as a 17-year-old. Coach Bedros Bedrossian reckons Arpinder is getting back to his best as the triple jumper won the Federation Cup and the Inter-State Championships, the latter with a jump of 17.09 metres. Starting off as a 100 metres sprinter, Arpinder’s failure to qualify for the Rio Olympics will rankle deeply with the ONGC athlete nicknamed ‘Bobby’.
Rakesh Babu A V
Date of Birth: March 20, 1990
Event at Asian Games: Triple Jump
Past performance (if any): N/A
Best performance so far: Gold at the Indian Grand Prix in Patiala (2014), Silver at the Federation Cup (2018)
Brief Description: The 28-year-old jumper from Kerala will be eager to put the Commonwealth Games behind him. At Gold Coast, Rakesh and 20-kilometre walker Irfan K T were sent home due to a breach of the ‘no needles’ policy. Having qualified for the final, the triple jumper was not allowed to participate further, as fellow Indian Arpinder Singh finished fourth. The jumper was trained at the Sports Authority of India, Trivandrum by George P Joseph. Married to former heptathlon national champion, the jumper joined the Indian Navy in 2011. Coming back stronger from Gold Coast, Rakesh jumped a personal best of 16.63 metres at the Inter-State Athletics Championships in Guwahati where he finished second.
Balasubramanya Chethan
Date of Birth: August 18, 1992
Event at Asian Games: High Jump
Past performance (if any): N/A
Best performance so far: Gold at the Federation Cup in Patiala (2017), Gold at the Inter-State Athletics Championships (2018)
Brief Description: Tejaswin Shankar’s withdrawal from the Asian Games paved the way for Balasubramanya Chethan and he grabbed the opportunity with both hands, setting a new personal best of 2.25 metres at the Inter-State Athletics Championships in Guwahati. With national record holder Tejaswin returning from an injury at the Federation Cup in 2017, Chethan shocked the field as Shankar failed thrice at 2.16 metres. A student of Bangalore University, Chethan is trained by G V Gaonkar, coach at Sports Authority of India, Kengeri. Chethan was also India’s highest-placed finisher at the 2017 Asian Athletics Championships in Bhubaneshwar, where he finished fifth with a best jump of 2.20 metres.
Tejinder Singh Pal Toor
Date of Birth: November 13, 1994
Event at Asian Games: Shot Put
Past performance (if any): N/A
Best performance so far: Silver at the Asian Athletics Championships (2017), Gold at the Federation Cup (2018), Gold at the Inter-State Athletics Championships (2018)
Brief Description: Tejinder Pal Singh, the six-foot four-inch shot put thrower had a Gold Coast games to forget as he could only manage a best throw of 19.42 metres in the final, finishing eighth. That was well below his seasonal best of 20.24 metres that he threw in Patiala to win the Federation Cup. He bagged a silver in Bhubaneswar last year, throwing 19.77 metres but the Asian Games field in Indonesia will be considerably stronger. Starting off as a cricketer, Tejinder was convinced by his father to take up the sport. An employee of the Indian Navy, Tejinder is coached by former athlete Mohinder Singh Dhillon.
Naveen Chhikara
Date of Birth: December 14, 1996
Event at Asian Games: Shot Put
Past performance (if any): N/A
Best performance so far: Silver at the Federation Cup (2018), Silver at the Inter-State Athletics Championships (2018)
Brief Description: Naveen Chhikara is the second shot-put thrower in the contingent aside from Tejinder Pal Singh Toor. Chhikara, born in Sonepat, has been unable to dislodge Tejinder but qualified for the Asian Games due to his performance in Guwahati, where he managed a best of 19.27 metres. Born in Sonepat, Chhikara trains at the Sports Authority of India under national coach Yuri Minakov. Chhikara is a student of the Maharishi Dayanand University, Rohtak amd also finished second at the Federation Cup and Indian Grand Prix earlier this year.
