Analysis of India's performance in Athletics at Paris Olympics 2024
India had a 29-member contingent compete in several athletics events at Paris Olympics 2024. The contingent included star athlete, Neeraj Chopra, his javelin throw compatriot Kishore Jena and 3000m steeplechase athlete Avinash Sable among many others.
However, the strong Indian athletics contingent returned unhappy from the Games even though they did well across a few phases of the event. India could only win one medal in athletics.
Apart from Neeraj Chopra's silver medal, the rest of the athletes failed to achieve a podium finish at the Summer Games. Not only that, India failed to go past the qualification rounds in most of the events. Here is a look at India's performance in athletics in Paris.
4. India consistently disappoints across several track events at Paris Olympics 2024
Race walk athletes Priyanka Goswami and Suraj Panwar looked like they didn't belong to the top level. The duo were unimpressive as they could not even finish the race in the Marathon Race Walk Relay Mixed.
In the 20km Race Walk, India was equally underperforming. While Vikash Singh and Paramjeet Singh were outside the top 30, Akshdeep Singh didn’t manage to finish.
Women's 3000m steeplechase athlete Parul Chaudhary had a forgettable campaign. Both the women’s and men's 4x400m relay teams did not make it into the finals either. However, the men's team impressed as they fought well to miss out on a final spot by a margin of just 0.32 seconds.
3. The struggle to be a competitive force in most field events continues
In the Long Jump, Jeswin Aldrin marked 7.61m. Sarvesh Kusare had the best clearance of 2.15m in the high jump, below his season best of 2.25m. Both Sarvesh and Jeswin failed to make it into the final of their respective events.
Praveen Chitravel and Abdulla Aboobacker arrived at the Paris Olympics 2024 with high expectations. The duo had the potential to mark distances over 17m in the triple jump but even though the cutoff was at 16.79m, both failed to qualify for the final.
In the shot put, one of India's most celebrated shot put athletes, Tajinderpal Singh Toor, failed to live up to the country's expectations. Toor finished 29th overall in the qualification round of the men's shot put at the Summer Games.
With a throw of 18.95m, he missed the qualification mark of 21.35m and did not finish among the top 12 to qualify for the final. Toor registering only one legal throw and committing a foul in the remaining two is indicative of his weak performance in Paris.
2. Avinash Sable impresses with historic perfromance at Paris Olympics 2024
Runner Avinash Sable was one of India's biggest takeaways in athletics from the quadrennial event in Paris. He was India's only other athletics finalist apart from Neeraj Chopra.
Sable became the first-ever Indian athlete to have qualified for the men's 3000m steeplechase final at the Olympics. He looked confident and did exceptionally well to have finished fifth in the qualification round with 8:15.43.
In the final, the 29-year-old put on another decent show to finish with a creditable 11th position. From failing to qualify for the finals at 2020 Tokyo to achieving an 11th place finish in Paris, Sable showed that he is improving and working hard on his skills.
1. Neeraj Chopra continues to be the face of Indian athletics with a silver, Kishore Jena disappoints
Star athlete Neeraj Chopra was expected to be the saving grace for the Indian athletics contingent at the Summer Games, and so he was. One of India's best performers at the Paris Olympics 2024, Neeraj won the silver medal in the men's javelin throw finals with an 89.45m throw.
With the silver in his pocket, Chopra brought home a consecutive second Olympic medal. He looked like an athlete who knew his worth on the world stage. The 26-year-old had stormed into the final by acing the qualification round, finishing with the longest throw of the round, 89.34m.
However, the Haryana-born athlete would be slightly unhappy with not being able to defend his gold from Tokyo 2020. But, the fact that the athlete was probably competing with a lingering injury, makes his performance exceptional.
On the other hand, another javelin thrower Kishore Jena failed to impress. Kishore came into the Olympic Games with an 87m+ throw at the 2023 Asian Games. However, Jena did not look at his best and failed to make it into the final with a best throw of only 80.73m in the qualification round.