Paris Olympics: One Neeraj Chopra medal, one Avinash Sable final, one close relay miss – but athletics contingent disappoints

India’s last track & field event at the Paris Olympics was the Men’s 4x400m Relay Round 1 heat on Friday. The quartet of Muhammed Anas Yahiya, Muhammed Ajmal, Amoj Jacob, and Rajesh Ramesh kept themselves in contention in Heat 2, where the top three get automatic qualification. It was an impressive effort, as they clocked a Season Best of 3:00.58 seconds. Originally, they were placed 5th in the race, and they missed out on non-automatic qualification by 0.5 seconds (to Zambia, who ran in Heat 1). Later in the day, Nigeria – who finished 2nd in Heat – were disqualified which moved India up to 4th in the heat.

And just like that, the margin by which India missed a place in the relay final came down to 0.32 seconds. They just had to finish ahead of Italy, and until the final bend of the anchor leg, Rajesh was shoulder-to-shoulder. Barely 50m to go, he was in with a shout but it wasn’t to be. But it was a performance the Indian could be proud of, because they came awfully close to their Personal Best (that famous 2:59.05 in Budapest, an Asian record).

Now, that’s the sort of performance you could appreciate at the end of the day. Sure, it must be heartbreaking to not repeat the performance from the Worlds and run along with the best of the best. You couldn’t say that, however, about most of India’s athletics contingent.

India’s Rajesh Ramesh and Amoj Jacob react after the men’s 4 x 400m relay event at the 2024 Summer Olympics. (PTI)

As expected, Neeraj Chopra was the sole saviour. The Tokyo gold medallist in men’s javelin throw, added a shiny silver to his cabinet at Paris, coming up with a crucial 89.45m – a Season Best, bettering the mark of 89.34m he had set in the qualification. It is a mark of Neeraj’s class that he brought out the two best throws of 2024 (and his 2nd best lifetime throw behind only the National Record mark of 89.94m) at the biggest stage of them all.

Despite what Neeraj has done for Indian athletics, it is not fair of course to expect medals to start rolling in four years time. Speaking to ANI about the golden boy’s silver, Athletics Federation of India President Adille Sumariwalla said, “I think people give too much stress on medals. I am one of those who doesn’t talk about medals. I think if the process is right, medals will come. Look at what happened today. Neeraj was injured. He came back from an injury. In Tokyo, he got gold Today he threw 2 meters more than he threw in Tokyo but had to settle for a silver…He got a season’s best. I think he’s a tiger.”

Which is, in fact, a fair assessment. But in a press conference back in May 2015, Sumariwalla was also quoted as saying: “We can no doubt perform better in the Paris Olympics than in Tokyo. We can win more medals in Paris. I had never in the past given any prediction of any event in which we can win a medal. But, if we our athletes performed their best (betters their personal best) in many events, we can win medals or finish in top four.”

Avinash Mukund Sable, of India, competes in a men’s 3000 meters steeplechase round 1 heat at the 2024 Summer Olympics. (AP)

Now let’s take a quick stock. The only athletics finalist in Paris apart from Neeraj was Avinash Sable, who became the first Indian man to qualify for the medal race in 3000m steeplechase, where he finished a creditable 11th. But that’s where the count stops.

Kishore Kumar Jena, who famously crossed 87m at the Asian Games to push Neeraj, struggled around the 80m in qualification. In women’s javelin throw veteran Annu Rani, who has crossed 60m+ in the past, finished with a best of 55.81m (plus a couple of 53m throws) to miss out on a final spot comfortably. Hurdler Jyothi Yarraji has been one of India’s more impressive performers in recent times, regularly clocking below 13s in 110mH (and eyeing a time close to 12.5s) but she ran 13.16s & 13.17s in her two opportunities.

In 20km Race Walk Akshdeep Singh didn’t finish, while Vikash and Paramjeet were outside the top 30. In Marathon Race Walk Relay Mixed, where the Indians qualified by finishing in the top 20 at the world qualifying event, Priyanka and Suraj Panwar did not finish the race.

The jumps have been fruitful for India at the Asian Games and CWG, but in Sreeshankar Murali’s injury-enforced absence, there was more disappointment. In high jump, Sarvesh Kusare had a best clearance of 2.15m, when he has a SB of 2.25m. In Long Jump, Jeswin Aldrin’s best mark was 7.61m, where – forget his PB of 8.42 – his SB of 7.99 would’ve been enough to reach the final. In Triple Jump, both Praveen Chitravel and Abdulla Aboobacker are capable of 17+, and the qualification cutoff was well below at 16.79m. Parul Chaudhary too had a forgettable campaign in both her events, while the women’s 4x400m relay team finished a full 6 seconds above the National Record mark.

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Now, individual performances can vary from event to event, and there are other variables in mix. But when there is a collective underperformance of this level, questions must be asked beyond just the athletes. What made them go well below their best at the Games where, as the cliche goes, they are expected to peak? Perhaps the answer lies in processes, as Sumariwalla said about Neeraj.

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