CHENNAI, AUG 20: Top athletes of the country, most of them undergoing advanced coaching at the Sports Authority of India, Patiala will vie for honours, at the Domestic Circuit Meet, conducted by the Tamil Nadu Amateur Athletic Association, at the Jawaharlal Stadium, on Aug 25.Briefing the press on Wednesday, W I Davaram, President of the Tamil Nadu Amateur Association, said that for the first time 60 juniors who are in the National camp at Patiala preparing for the Junior Asian Track and Field Meet, scheduled at Bangkok, will also take part. Participation of both the senior and junior campers have been made compulsory, and according to a note from the president of the AAFI, the defaulters will have to face a ban of three months, he added. The host association will also field a team comprising upcoming and outstanding athletes and the competition expected is to be of the high order.There will be as many as seven events in the men's section namely 100, 400, 110m hurdles, discus, javelin, high jump and the mile. On the distaff side, the athletes will fight it out in the 100, 400, 1600 amd shot put. Each event will carry prize money of Rs 10,000. The break-up is Rs 5,000 for the gold, Rs 3,000 for the silver and Rs 1,000 for bronze while the record breakers will also stand to gain by means of incentives.The 100m field in the men's section is in for a stiff competition. Amit Khanna, the National record holder with a timing of 10.54 secs, set at the National Games in Bangalore recently will go all out to retain his place. But an attractive line up comprising, Anil Kumar, the silver medalists at the National games, Manoj Kumar, Thirugnana Durai C Balasubramaniam and Anand Natarajan of Tamil Nadu are sure to run him close. In the 400m, Paramjit Singh who has been pocketing the title in almost all the meets held in the past three years, will once again want to keep his record straight. But he is sure to face tough opposition in the form of Lijo David, a member of the present Indian squad that went on a tour of Europe. For the discus event the field consists of Amrik Singh, Jaswinder Singh, Avtar Singh and Shakti Singh. In the 110m hurdles and 400m hurdles, Harish and Sahib Singh respectively are likely to have it easy.The women's 100m field will also witness a close fight with most of them having won a major meet at one time or the other. Rachita Mistry, V Pandeeswari, E B Shyla, P T Usha, Vinita Tripathi, Saraswati Devi and B Lavanya to name a few will be competing.Other star attractions will be Harbans Kaur, Amandeep Kaur and Harpreet in the shot put event.RAJEEV FOR FED CUP: The Federation Cup will be held at Chennai from Aug 27 to 29.The first meet was conducted at Calcutta in 1995 and the second atPune last year. Punjab Police emerged as the champions first and Tamil Nadu took the honours last year.Davaram said the US-based sprinter Rajeev Balakrishnan, would be representing Tamil Nadu in the competition.
