Fed Cup to gauge young talent

With many top female athletes out of action, the 13th National Federation Cup athletics championship may lose some of its sheen, but the top athletics meet of the country will definitely give an indication on the youngsters8217; progress before the Beijing Olympics.

With many top female athletes out of action, the 13th National Federation Cup athletics championship may lose some of its sheen, but the top athletics meet of the country will definitely give an indication on the youngsters8217; progress before the Beijing Olympics.

The meet has also assumed importance as the team for the Asian Track and Field meet, to be held in Lebanon in July, would be selected following the athletes8217; performance here. The top names who would be missing in this meet include long jumper Anju Bobby George, long distance runner Suneeta Rani, heptathlete Soma Biswas, walker Deepmala and middle distance runner Pinky Pramanik.

Pinky, a gold medalist at the Doha Asian Games, has sprained her ankle while practising, while Soma, who won a silver there, got married a few days ago and decided to skip this meet. In the absence of Soma, the women8217;s heptathlon would be a keen contest between JJ Sobha from Andhra Pradesh, a Doha bronze medalist, and Sushmita Singha Roy of Bengal. Sobha pipped Sushmita to the second spot in the last National Games at Guwahati.

Organising secretary of the meet, Debashish Banerjee, said other top athletes who would be seen in action are sprinter Piyush Kumar of Delhi, triple jumper Amarjeet Singh of Punjab, hurdler Joseph Abraham from CRPF, high jumper Hari Shankar Roy from Bengal, pole vaulter V Surekha from Tamil Nadu, long distance runner Madhuri Gurnule from Maharashtra, hammer thrower Hardeep Kaur from Punjab and middle distance runner Chitra Soman from Jharkhand.

Around 550 athletes representing 20 states and eight Athletics Federation of India recognised units would join this championship, which would be held in two sessions, morning and evening, due to hot and humid weather in the city. Though the four-day meet would be formally opened in the afternoon tomorrow, the finals of the 5000 metre run for both men and women would be held in the morning.