Indian Athletics Series 1: Murali Sreeshankar, Shaili Singh begin season

With Asian Games and Commonwealth Games qualification in sight, long jump duo Murali Sreeshankar and Shaili Singh are set to start their season at the Indian Athletics Series 1 at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru on Saturday.

The venue brings added excitement for jump events as it has seen big jumps in the past. Former national record holder Sreeshankar, whose personal best is 8.41 metre (in 2023), starts his season after missing out on Indian Open Jump participation, will face some competition from Hasan boy Purushotham, who won that event with his career best of 7.87. Odisha's Sarun Payasingh, who won the National Indoors, will look to improve his best further after a 7.81 attempt in Bhubaneswar last month.

The women's final, however, may attract more eyeballs as long jump prodigy Shaili will be up against Asian Games silver medallist Ancy Sojan, who is all set to start her outdoor season after a bronze at the Asian Indoors in February. Shaili's training partner Mubassina Mohammed (the duo is trained by Dronacharya awardee Robert Bobby George in Kengeri) will add further depth to the competition as the youngster will look to improve on her personal best of 6.38.

The one-day event has gained significance for track and field athletes, especially those who are training in the southern region of the country as the Athletics Federation of India once again clarified that those aspiring can't just qualify by breaching the qualification standards.

They must compete in at least a state and two national-level events to be eligible for the AFI's four-day events -- May's National Senior Athletics Federation Competition (Ranchi) and June's National Inter-State Senior Athletics Championships (Bhubaneswar) -- that have been billed as mandatory events in order to qualify for the CWG and Asiad, respectively.

The men's 100m final is going to be a spectacle too as Karnataka's Manikanta Hoblidhar has a point to prove after disqualification in his last two events, including the Asian Indoors. Having somebody like Gurindervir Singh, who is in red-hot form with back-to-back national record timings in indoors 60m and mixed 4x100m relays, in the competition means one can expect a fast race, given the worn-out tracks of Kanteerava don't play the spoilsport.

Meanwhile, men's 800m national record holder Mohammed Afsal, 2022 Asian Games silver medallist, is among the leading names in that pack while Asian Championships silver medallist Pooja is the leading name in the women's 800m pack.

Women's pole vault will be hard to miss out with Baranica Elangovan returning to outdoor events after breaching the overall national record at 4.22m at the National Indoors last month.