All About India's Track And Field Medal Prospects In 2024 Summer Olympics

In sports such as Track and Field events and Shooting games, countries win quotas rather than individual athletes. This means the athlete who secured the quota can be substituted by another athlete leading up to the Games. As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority to choose athletes who represent their respective countries at the Summer Olympic Games 2024, athletes' participation at the Paris Games depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at the Paris Olympics 2024. For now, 7 out of 13 athletes have breached the qualification standards for Paris 2024, being in the men's 20km race walk. India will face a selection dilemma due to the cap of three athletes per event. Furthermore, the National Olympic Committee allows them to enter their highest-ranked male or female athlete in the 100m, 800m, or marathon event. Talking about Javelin throw events, Neeraj Chopra and Kishore Kumar Jena have qualified and will be participating in the Paris Olympics. In this blog, we take a look at India's Track and Field medal prospects at the 2024 Summer Olympics.

All about Indian Track and field medal prospects at the 2024 Summer Olympics

1. Priyanka Goswami and Akshdeep Singh secure Olympic quota in 20km race walk and mixed relay event

India's Priyanka Goswami and Akshdeep Singh finished in 18th place at the World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships in Antalya, Turkey. Despite the disappointing finish, their performance secured the Olympic quota for the marathon race walk mixed relay event. Akshdeep and Goswami have secured individual quotas for the 20km race walk, earning an Olympic quota for the event that will debut at the 2024 Summer Olympics. They achieved this with a timing of 3:05:03, finishing 18th at the World Championships in Antalya. Akshdeep and Goswami registered a timing of 3:05:03 to finish inside the top 20 in the World Championships in Antalya.

The marathon mixed relay event is a new racewalking category that will make its debut at the 2024 Summer Olympic Games, taking place in the French capital in July and August later this year. The event involves a pair of race walkers, one male athlete and one female, covering the total marathon distance of 42.195 km. The male athlete covers the initial 12.195 km of the race, with the remaining 30 km divided into three legs, each comprising 10 km. The female race-walker covers the first leg, and then it is alternated between the two teammates. Priyanka Goswami is the only woman racewalker to have qualified for the Olympics after clocking below the qualifying standard of 1:29.20 in February last year. Munita Prajapati and Bhawan Jat are also in the running to qualify for the Olympics via the World Rankings quota.

2. Athletics Federation of India in a tough spot after 7 Indians qualify for the men's 20km racewalk event

India's Ram Baboo recently achieved the men's 20km race walk qualification mark for the 2024 Paris Olympics after clocking a personal best time of 1:20.00 at the Dudinska 50 Meet in Slovakia. Talking about the latest Olympics news, Baboo is the seventh Indian male racewalker to qualify for the Paris Olympics, joining Vikash Singh, Paramjeet Singh Bisht, Akshdeep Singh, Suraj Panwar, Servin Sebastian, and Arshpreet Singh. Ram Baboo, a bronze medalist in the Hangzhou Asian Games Mixed team 35km race walk, finished third at the event with a time of 1:20.10, narrowly missing out on the Paris Olympics mark. With strict Olympic rules permitting a maximum of three athletes per event per gender, it will be up to the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) to decide the three athletes that ultimately get to represent the nation in the Summer Olympic Games 2024.

Chennai is preparing to host the second Indian Grand Prix of the 2024 athletics season at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium. The one-day event, organized by the Tamil Nadu Athletic Association (TNAA) under the supervision of the Athletic Federation of India (AFI), will showcase top athletes from across the country competing for honours. The Grand Prix is one of the selection trials for this year's Paris Olympics. Prominent athletes expected to compete include triple jumper Abdulla Aboobacker, who won the silver medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games and the gold medal at the 2023 Asian Athletics Championships. National record holders Rosy Meena Paulraj, Pavithra Venkatesh, and Baranica Elangovan will compete in the women's pole vault. Tamil Nadu's Santhosh (200m), K. Avinash (400m), and Mohammed Salahuddin (triple jump) are among the state's elite athletes participating.

3. Neeraj Chopra, Kishore Jena and Manu DP all set to take Indian Javelin forward at the Paris Olympics 2024

Neeraj Chopra and Kishore Kumar Jena, who achieved a historic gold-silver finish at the Hangzhou Asian Games, have both earned spots for the upcoming Summer Olympics in July-August. However, Neeraj Chopra, the poster boy of Indian athletics, is confident that another javelin thrower, Manu DP, should also qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics. Talking about India's Javelin throw medal prospects, Manu DP has not yet achieved the 2024 Olympic qualifying standard of 85.50m but is currently in the 11th position in the Road to Paris rankings, making a solid case for qualification alongside Chopra and Jena.

India has a really good chance of winning Olympic medals in Track and Field events. A mind-boggling total of 10,500 athletes from 206 NOCs and a Refugee Olympic Team will compete at the 2024 Olympics in Paris. With 68 days left before the start of the Olympic Athletics events, there couldn't be a better day to look at the Indian contingent. Olympic champion Abhinav Bindra will be one of the Olympic torch bearers of the Paris Olympics 2024. Indian Javelin throw superstar Neeraj Chopra will be defending his title at the Paris Olympics and will be entering the global competition as one of the greatest Olympic gold medalist in India, which is a huge stature at this moment.