Hima Das leads 31 strong contingent to Junior World Championships

New Delhi. Tipped to bring back an elusive track medal for the country at the World Junior Championships, quarter miler Hima Das will be leading a squad of 31 Indian athletes – 21 men and 10 women — to the IAAF U20 World Junior Championships to be held in the Finnish city of Tampere between 10th and 15th of July 2018.

The 18-year-old Das, has been going from strength to strength ever since she first broke into the national scene with a pair of medals at the Indian U-18 Youth Nationals in February 2018. Although Das had won just a silver and bronze in that tournament, she has made a name for herself as the fastest active athlete over the 200 and 400m in India. The athlete from Dhing village in Assam has even made a mark in international competition with an impressive sixth place finish in the 400m event at the Commonwealth Games in April this year. Das is in red hot form heading into the competition in Finland, having won the 400m title at the Inter State Athletics Championships in Guwahati last month.

Her winning time of 51.13 seconds makes her one of the form favourites for the Junior Worlds with only one other athlete – USA’s Sydney McLaughlin – having recorded a faster time this year.

Das is not the only athlete who will be expecting to compete for medals at the World Championships. Among the men, junior national record holder M Sreeshankar would be carrying the most responsibility. The long jumper’s personal best of 7.99m set at the Federation Cup in March this year is the fourth best jump by a Junior athlete this year. However, Sreeshankar suffered a setback when he suffered a severe case of appendicitis shortly after his record-breaking jump in Patiala. The Kerala athlete however has managed to regain some of his lost form winning a bronze medal at the Asian Junior Championships in Gifu last month with an effort of 7.47m. Sreeshankar will have company in Tampere as compatriot Satyanathan Lokesh has also been named to the squad. Lokesh goes into the competition in 11th place amongst junior athletes this season with a season’s best of 7.74m recorded at the South Asian Junior Championships in May.

Also looking to carry on some form from the Asian Junior championships would be the hammer throw pair of Ashish Jhakar and Damneet Singh who took first and second place at the tournament in Gifu last month. Jhakhar’s throw of 76.86m places him sixth amongst junior athletes this season while Singh’s season’s best of 74.08 places him eleventh. Despite a slightly shorter throw, Singh would be carrying a bit of confidence of competing and winning at the international level, having clinched a silver medal at the World Youth Championships in Nairobi last year.

Competing under a bit of pressure would be javelin thrower Sahil Silwal. The 18-year-old has big shoes to fill. He will be looking to emulate senior compatriot Neeraj Chopra, who at the 2016 edition of the tournament in Bydgoszcz, set a new junior world record with a throw of 86.48m to became the first Indian to win a gold medal at an IAAF world event.

Silwal’s best is 74.88m that he recorded last month in Kuortane Motonet GP in Finland. The mark places him fifth amongst junior javelin throwers. However, Silwal’s coach Uwe Hohn has tipped the youngster to cross the 80m mark soon and Tampere would be as good a tournament as any to create a new personal best.

Heading into the competition full of confidence would be middle distance runner Beant Singh. Marked out for success at an early age following a silver medal in the 800m at the Open Nationals in 2014 and then a gold medal at the Asian Youth Championships the following year, Beant suffered a series of injuries that caused his career to falter. An exit in the heats at the 2016 Junior World championships in a sub-par time of 1:51.73 seconds was a particular low point. The Haryana athlete though has found some momentum once again clocking 1:46.92 seconds in a fourth-place finish at last month’s Inter State Championships. That timing is the seventh fastest in amongst junior athletes this year.

IAAF World U20 Championships Tampere 2018, Tampere 2018

INDIA TEAM