All eyes on jumpers to book World Championships berths

Bengaluru: Prominent Indian jumpers including Ancy Sojan, Abdulla Aboobacker, U Karthik, Praveen Chitravel, Sarvesh among others will kick-start their season at the 4th Indian Open Jumps Competition here on Saturday. 

Hosting the event for the second time in a row, the Anju Bobby High Performance Centre in Kengeri will see athletes fighting for top honours in the long jump, high jump, triple jump and pole vault. 

While the competitions were held only for the men and women categories last year, the competition has been broadened this time around by adding the under-18 and under-20 sections for boys and girls. 

The day-long tournament also serves as a qualification event for the upcoming World Athletics Championships scheduled to be held in Tokyo between September 13-21. 

Speaking about the importance of the competition in a busy calendar year ahead for the athletes, Anju, Olympian and former World Championship bronze medal-winning long jumper, said that the performance here will be an assessment of the jumpers' off-season training and a starting point for them to improve on as the season progresses. 

“The track is in an extremely good condition and they can produce their best here. Since the competition is also the selection trials for the World Championships, it will be interesting to see athletes pushing each other to earn a spot,” said Anju, who is also the senior vice-president of the Athletics Federation of India (AFI). 

“We added the age groups to give the juniors an opportunity to compete with the seniors. This is very important in the growth of their careers because they are the next lot who will come to the fore in the future,” said the 47-year-old.