Top athletes for National Meet

New Delhi, May 31 (UNI) Top athletes of the country will be seen in action in the two-day National Combined Event Competition to be held here from tomorrow.

More than 80 athletes, specialised and trained in combined events will take part in the most gruelling discipline of Track and Field events. There will be a total of eight events for senior (men and women) as well as junior (boys and girls under 20, 18&16 years) athletes.

National record holder Jora Singh (7502 points) has recovered from injury, which forced him an early exit from Melbourne Commonwealth Games. In the absence of Kulwinder, Jora is expected to dominate Men's Decathlon but his arch rival P J Vinod from Kerala is expected to give tough fight in the two day long event. If Jora has strong field event points then Vinod is excellent in sprint events and this match will be the key highlight of the competition.

Jora had beaten Vinod in the last contests between them held on this venue in March 2006 where both of them had bettered Kulwinder Singh's year old National mark of 7325 points.

In the junior section Natasha Sagar of Karnataka is expected to continue with her unbeaten run in girls under 18 years Heptathlon.

Shilpa Sunder, who is aiming to book berth in the Indian team for Asian Junior is expected to go beyond 4800 points.

In the boys section R Ezhilvalavan of Tamilnadu has high expectations in the Junior men decathlon event while S Rajakumar could score impressive in boys under-18 year Octathlon event.

UNI HSB PG LR RK2105