Anju George, Vikas Gowda to spearhead Indian challenge

Melbourne, Mar 18 (UNI) Star long jumper Anju Bobby George and US-based discus thrower Vikas Gowda will spearhead the Indian challenge in the high-voltage field as the blue ribbon event, the Athletic competition, of the 18th Commonwealth Games begin here tomorrow.

Indian athletics has much at stake in these Games. It has to come out of the recent doped image. A good showing will work wonders for the morale of the athletes who have been wary of WADA testers. It will also help Athletics Federation of India counter critics at home. More than anything else, it will put Indian athletics on the right track towards the Doha Asian Games.

From 1986 to 1998, India did not field an athlete in the Commonwealth Games. For, it was felt that the country's athletics standards were far below that of the leading athletics powers in the Commonwealth. The simple truth startles when one looks at the strength of the Indian athletics squad for these Games. It numbers 19. The last time it was just five.

It could well have been 33 had not the AFI whittled down the Sports Ministry-approved list while accepting the futility of medal talk in some of the events.

In theory, each event entered by the Indian athletics team should provide a medal to the country. In reality, it may come down to two or three at best.

That, too, if everything goes absolutely according to plan and form.

Long jumper Anju George, the only Indian athlete to have won a senior World Championship medal, Vikas Gowda and any one or two from the women's discus trio of Seema Antil, Harwant Kaur and Krishna Poonia could emerge with a medal from the Games here.

Obviously all eyes will be on Anju George. Ranked fifth in the world, having just slipped a rung following her unhappy sojourn to Moscow for the World Indoor Championships, the lanky Chennai based jumper has the unenviable task of living up to her own stature and the expectations of a medal-hungry country.

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