Rising qualifications standards bring stern challenge in front of Indian athletes to seal Paris Olympics tickets, confirms Anju Bobby George

The target is out and now the Indian athletes have their goal in front of them as the qualification standards of the Paris Olympics 2024 for track and field events are out. It is once more a very daunting task for the Indian athletes as they will have to be at their best to book the ticket to Paris.

The standards are higher than ever as World Athletics is improving every single day. The current standards are much higher than what they usually were earlier as most of the athletes fulfilling the standards will break their national records.

Athletes like Neeraj Chopra (Javelin) and Avinash Sable (3000m Steeplechase) will probably have little to no challenge as such in reaching the standards and getting the ticket to Paris for the next Olympics but other Indian athletes will have to work their socks off to fulfill their Olympic dream.

The qualification window for the Paris 2024 Olympics will open from 1st July, 2023 as the athletes are getting ready from now on to be at their best.

However 50% of the quota is reserved for qualifications through the World Athletics rankings. The rankings are decided by calculating the top five performances of that particular athlete during the qualification window. Also the stature of the event and the field of competition is also considered before handing out a ranking.

The standards are high all over the athletics discipline and it holds true for Women’s long jump aswell. The current qualification standard is 6.86m; 0.3m above legendary Anju Bobby George’s 18-year-old national record. However India is once again hoping that Anju Bobby George’s student Saili Singh will break that record and secure the ticket to Paris.

Anju Bobby George believes that the U-20 World Championship silver medallist has everything in her to reach that level. Her current best is 6.48m. George shared how she has trained from a very young age and it makes her hopeful that someone from her academy may probably break her record.

“By the time it is 2024, Shaili will be 20 years old and I think 2024 should be the year when she will break my record,” George told Firstpost.

“She has the advantage of getting moulded early by Bobby (long jump coach Robert Bobby George) during her formative years and her progress is on good track, which makes me hopeful that it won’t be long before we see her better my record,” she added.

Anju Bobby George, the senior vice president of the Athletics Federation of India feels it will be a tough task for the Indian athletes but she definitely looks out for some records that will be broken.

“Records are meant to be broken, otherwise where’s the progress? Olympic qualification standards keep on improving and that means 2024 is going to be a challenging year for Indian athletes but they have the support system in place to achieve that. Tier 1 athletes will have little difficulty in confirming their berths but Tier 2 athletes will also push for direct qualification and any improvement will always help in improving their rankings,” George concluded.