Large Indian athletics contingent has few pretentions

Large Indian athletics contingent has few pretentions

SYDNEY, SEPTEMBER 21: The showcase discipline of any Olympic Games, the track and field events, commence here on Friday and India is represented by its largest-ever squad after the 1980 Moscow Games, though with hardly any claims to fame.

The maxmimum that can be expected from the athletes is for them to improve upon their personal bests which can be aided by the excellent track conditions here.

Those with a semblance of a chance of making it anywhere near the finals are in shot put and the two 4x400m relay teams.

For the burly Shakti Singh even his best is yet to be rectified and his record throw of 20.60m (Which is not the official Asian record) may not be sufficient to be among the top 12 to battle it out for top honours -- in two groups -- from a field of 37.

The men's relay squad will have to dip under 3 minutes and the women have to achieve 3:25.00 to realistically think of making it to the finals.

The Indians on show on the first day Friday will be quarter-milers Paramjit Singh, among men, and K M Beenamol, among women, shot putters Shakti Singh and Bahadur Singh and javelin thrower Jagdish Bishnoi.