Deeksha, Shirse among top attractions at season-ending National Open Athletics C”ships

Bengaluru, Aug 29 (PTI) Middle distance runner KM Deeksha and 110m hurdler Tejas Shirse will be among the top attractions at the National Open Athletics Championships beginning here on Friday, as most of the country’s top performers, including Paris Olympians, decided to give the season-ending event a miss.

Deeksha and Shirse, national record holders in women’s 1500m and men’s 110m hurdles, will hope to put aside the disappointment of failing to make it to the Paris Olympics and come up with a strong performance in the four-day event.

Gulveer Singh (men’s 5000m) and Manikanta Hoblidhar (men’s 100m) are among other national record holders who have entered their names for the event to be held at the Kanteerava Stadium.

Only three Paris Olympians — Vithya Ramraj (women’s 400m hurdles), Priyanka Goswami (women’s 20000m race walk) and Annu Rani (women’s javelin throw) — have entered their names.

Representing Madhya Pradesh, Deeksha’s goal is to dominate both 800m and 1500m events. She had improved the national 1500m record to 4:04.78 in June on the USA circuit.

“It will be a good time to test my skills in the last domestic meet,” she said.

“Performance would depend on local weather conditions. But if all goes as planned, I should be able to pocket gold medals in both 800m and 1500m.”

Madhya Pradesh’s shot putter Samardeep Singh Gill will also be aiming to break the 20m barrier in Bengaluru.

“I’m looking forward to some good results during the domestic meet,” the thrower from Bhopal said.

“I’m prepared for the fickle Bengaluru weather at this time of the year.”

The National Open Athletics Championships, the season’s last domestic competition, has always given opportunity to athletes on the fringes to showcase their talent.

Way back in 2018, Army’s distance runner Avinash Sable stormed the 3,000m steeplechase bastion, breaking long standing national record of Gopal Saini.

Since 2018, Sable, now 29, has been on a record breaking spree. He went on to win silver in the 3,000m steeplechase at the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games, a gold in the Hangzhou Asian Games in 2023.

In the Paris Olympics, Sable became the first Indian man to qualify for the 3000m steeplechase final. His national record in the 3,000m steeplechase stands at 8:09.91 second.

Commonwealth Games medallist long jumper M Sreeshankar rose into prominence in 2018. He made an impressive mark at the National Open then held in Bhubaneswar and never looked back. Sreeshankar missed the Paris Olympics as he was recovering from an injury.

The opening day will see race walkers and long distance runners battle for top honours in men and women’s event. The first event of the day is 20000m race walk in both men’s and women’s group, followed by 5000m race.