South Asian Senior Athletics Championships kick off in Ranchi after 17 years | More sports News

After facing multiple postponements, the fourth edition of South Asian Senior Athletics Championships is all set to start at the Birsa Munda Stadium in Ranchi on Friday.The three-day event will see participation of more than 200 athletes from six countries. While India has fielded the biggest contingent of 78 athletes, mostly junior athletes, Sri Lanka has arrived with a 63-member team. The remaining entries are from Nepal (27), Bangladesh (20), Maldives (15) and Bhutan (8). Pakistan, despite being invited, decided to skip the meet, according to Athletics Federation of India (AFI) officials.The Indian athletes will hope to put up a dominant show in the event which is being held after a gap of 17 years. With the season already over, the meet won’t see too many seniors from India and that has proved to be a boon for the juniors.And one of them who is looking to make good use of this opportunity is Sakshi Chavan from Gujarat. The 20-year-old bagged the 100m and the 200m double during the National Junior Athletics Championships last year besides bagging the best athlete award in the U20 girls’ category. However, a month later she tore a ligament on her left ankle during a practice session and was out of action for nearly five months.“I missed several events including the World University Games. But I am happy with my comeback and competed in three back-to-back events to make sure I’m well prepared,” said Sakshi, who trains in Mumbai under James Hillier, athletics director, Reliance Foundation.Although she was out for months recovering, Chavan worked a lot on her strength during the period, and it helped her immensely after she made a return to the track.“I grabbed medals in both 100m and 200m during the tournaments and achieved my personal best in 100m at the Indian Open U23 Athletics meet,” added the young sprinter, who will compete in 200m and 4x100m relay.Another youngster who will hope to impress is Haryana’s Deepika. The javelin thrower achieved her PB of 57.19m in August and is coming into the championship having won the gold at the National Juniors in Bhubaneswar.Meanwhile, the opening day will see some mouth-watering clashes between the Indian and Sri Lankan athletes especially in the men’s 100m dash where Maharashtra’s Pranav Gurav will hope to better his personal best of 10.27s. The opening day featured a total of nine medal events, including the men’s shot put, where India’s Samardeep Gill is looking to cross the 20m mark.