Patna
Sprinters will be a major attraction due to sheer numbers in the short dash on the opening day of the three-day fourth edition of Indian Open U23 Athletics Competition that will commence here on Saturday at Patna’s Patliputra Sports Complex.
The men’s 100m has attracted 89 entries. There will be nine heats. The first eight heats will have 10 competitors while the last heat will have nine sprinters. “We have ten lanes for the 100m event. Hence it was decided to have 10 athletes in each of the heats,” Stanley Jones, head of technical team of Athletics Federation of India said on the eve of the U23 competition.
Manikanta H Hoblidhar who holds the national 100m record of 10.23 seconds set last year will look ahead to maintain his supremacy. He will face stiff challenge from Odisha’s Animesh Kujur who is one of the leading men’s 200m sprinter and will be seen in action in the 100m dash.
The women’s 100 heats will see 36 sprinters battling for supremacy.
The men’s 400m has also attracted a good number of athletes. There are eight heats. Each heat will have eight athletes.
Going by the entries, 38 runners will contest the men’s 1500m event, while two-day grueling decathlon has attracted 24 entries. On the first day of decathlon the athletes will compete in 100m, long jump, shot put, high jump and 400m. The second day events are—110m hurdles, discus throw, pole vault, javelin throw and 1500m run.
The opening event on Saturday will be the men and women’s 10,000m race. Haryana’s Puneet Yadav who holds the U23 record of 29:44.64 in 10,000m set in 2022, will be among 25 competitors. The majority of the distance runners are from Uttar Pradesh.
A fair number of Uttar Pradesh runners are in the women’s 10,000m race. In all there are 12 competitors that will contest for medals on the first day of the meet.
The morning session will have two finals while medals will be distributed in nine disciplines in the post lunch session.
Radhakrishnan Nair, Chief Athletics coach said, the Indian Open U23 Athletics Competition in Patna will be a good platform for promising athletes to showcase their potential. “Several athletes competing here in Patna will be aiming for a steady performance in the 2025 season to stay in the race for Asian Championship and World Athletics Championships,” the chief athletics coach added.
