Decathlete Tejaswin Shankar is set to take part in the men's 110m hurdles and high jump events at the the Indian Open Athletics Meetings at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru on Saturday.
Credit: PTI File Photo
Bengaluru: After making pitstops in Sangrur (Punjab), Nadiad (Gujarat), Ranchi and Chennai, the Indian Open Athletics Meetings (IOAM) will now be held here at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium on Saturday.
The fifth of the eight scheduled one-day events in the domestic athletics’ calendar will have a few star attractions lining up to put their mid-season form to test.
Among them, Olympian Tajinderpal Singh Toor has confirmed his entry in the men’s shot put while middle distance runner Mohammed Afsal P, who has been on a national record-breaking spree in recent times, will be seen in action in the men’s 800m race.
Tejaswin Shankar, who has switched to decathlon as his main event and picked up a silver medal at the 26th Asian Athletics Championship (AAC) in Gumi, South Korea, last month, is returning to his pet event, the high jump, this weekend.
The 26-year-old national record holder (2.29m) of the vertical jump, representing JSW here, will be wary of Maharashtra’s Sarvesh Anil Kushare who has threatened to break his mark by notching a season’s best of 2.26m at the 28th National Federation Senior Athletics Championships in Kochi this April. The duel between the duo is expected to be an enthralling one on the day.
Tejaswin, who is based in the USA, will also be in fray in the men’s 110m hurdles.
In the women’s section, quartermiler and hurdle specialist R Vithya Ramraj, hopes to blaze through the track in the 400m hurdles. The 26-year-old three-time national champion from Tamil Nadu is coming to the City with a bronze at the AAC and a gold from the Taiwan Open Athletics.
As for the hosts, all eyes will be on 27-year-old Sneha SS in the women’s 100m dash while her male counterparts from the state - Aryan Manoj (100m) and Abhin B Devadiga (200m) who both won gold in their respective races at the state senior athletics championships a few days ago - will hope to impress in front of the home crowd.
The women’s 100m dash could turn out to be a close affair with Telangana’s Nithya Gandhe along with local girls V Sudheeksha, Daneshwari AT and Sneha eager to outpace each other for top honours.
Triple jumper Jesse Sandesh, whose personal best of 2.24m came in 2023 and has a season’s best of 2.14m, will be another medal hope for Karnataka where he will have to tussle with 23 other jumpers for a place on the podium.
Following what promises to be an action-packed day in Bengaluru, the final three competitions of IOAM series will be conducted in Pune (Maharashtra), Patna (Bihar) and finish where it all began in Sangrur in July.