Asian Games 2022: Athletics Federation of India reveals qualifying standards
Know the qualification marks set by the AFI for the deferred Asian Games 2022 in Hangzhou, China in September-October 2023.
Athletics
The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) updated the qualifying standards for Indian athletes looking to make the cut for Asian Games 2022, which will be held in Hangzhou, China from September 23 to October 8, 2023.
The Asian Games were to be held in 2022 but were postponed to 2023 due to COVID-19. Compared to the qualifying standards set by the AFI for 2022, there are some notable revisions to the list for Hangzhou 2022.
The men’s 100m qualifying mark was previously set at 10.13 seconds and has been now relaxed to 10.19. In the men’s 200m, the new qualifying mark is 20.61s, raised by 0.1s from 2022.
Though the entry standards have been relaxed for most running events, Indian athletes in the men’s 100m and 200m would still be required to better existing national records to get selected for the continental event.
For women, the new qualifying mark in 100m is 11.42s, which is 0.6s more than last year.
Dutee Chand clocked 11.32s to win a 100m silver at Asian Games 2018 in Jakarta. The Indian sprinter holds the women’s 100m national record of 11.17s she created in 2021. She also won a 200m silver at Jakarta 2018 in 23.20s.
In 2022, Dutee Chand’s best effort in 200m was 23.60s. She will have to improve to 23.43s in the upcoming season to make the cut for the Asian Games 2022. The previous qualifying mark for the Asian Games was a steep 23.17s.
The qualifying marks for Indian jumpers have also been eased. Indian men’s long jumpers will need to hit 7.95m instead of the previous 7.98m while the men’s high jumpers need to soar over 2.24m as compared to 2.25m.
Tejaswin Shankar clinched bronze at the Commonwealth Games with a high jump of 2.22m.
Indian athletes, particularly those in jump events, produced impressive performances at the Commonwealth Games 2022 in Birmingham.
Eldhose Paul won India’s first triple jump gold at CWG while Abdulla Aboobacker followed him to win silver. Murali Sreeshankar won silver in the men’s long jump while Tejaswin Shankar clinched India’s first CWG medal in the high jump.
India’s Tokyo 2020 javelin throw champion Neeraj Chopra, who skipped the Commonwealth Games 2022 due to injury, will look to defend his Asian Games title in China.
At the Asian Games 2018 in Jakarta - the last edition of the continental championships - India won an impressive 20 medals – eight golds, nine silvers and three bronze - in athletics.
Selection process for the Asian Games
The qualifying standards for the Asian Games can be different for each nation, unlike the Olympics where qualifying marks for every nation are the same.
The respective federations set their own standards which athletes need to achieve within a fixed qualifying window to be eligible for selection in the final team.
In case any athlete fails to qualify, selectors can use their discretion to pick an athlete, a potential medal winner.
A fixed number of quotas is allocated to each federation based on past performances and other factors. Respective federations can select their final team to fill up the maximum quota allocated to them.