Where would India's athletics medalists stand at Tokyo Olympics?

These athletes gave India many medals in Birmingham.

Track and field events were one of the highlights for India at the Commonwealth Games. The way our athletes executed their performances at this level was commendable. From the men’s triple jump to the women’s javelin throw, all of them did something outstanding.

The eight medals include gold, four silver and three bronze. Many of the athletes recorded their personal best during their outing to Birmingham. This shows that they were in their best form and gave their best performance to win medals for India.

Let us analyze how good their scores would have been at the Olympics:

Eldhose Paul (Men’s Triple Jump)

Eldhose Paul surpassed his personal best at the Commonwealth Games 2022. His previous personal best of 16.99m was recorded earlier at The Federation Cup this year. He recorded a jump of 17.03m at Birmingham to win the one and only gold medal in track and field.

If Eldhose Paul would have recorded a jump of 17.03m at the Tokyo Olympics he would have snatched the eighth position ahead of Yaoqing Fang of China who recorded a jump of 17.01m. The gold medalist, Pedro P. Pichardo from Portugal recorded a distance of 17.98m and Fabrice Zango Hugues from Burma recorded 17.47m for bronze.

Murali Sreeshankar (Men’s Long Jump)

Murali Sreeshankar won the silver medal at the Commonwealth Games 2022. He missed the gold by the tiniest margin possible. He tied with Laquan Nairn of Bahamas with 8.08m and clinched silver based on the second best jump among them, which was 7.98m for Nairn and 7.84m for Sreeshankar. Sreeshankar has the season and personal best of 8.36m and was well short of his Personal Best in Commonwealth Games.

If Sreeshankar would have recorded a jump of 8.08m at the Tokyo Olympics he would have been in the seventh position tied with Thobias Montler of Sweden, whose jump was also 8.08m. The gold medal distance at Tokyo was 8.41m recorded by Miltiadis Tentoglou from Greece. Whereas, the bronze medal was captured with a distance of 8.21m by Maykel Masso of Cuba.

Abdulla Aboobacker (Men’s Triple Jump)

The second medal from the men’s triple jump was clinched by Abdulla Aboobacker with just a difference of 0.01m. He won the silver medal by capturing a distance of 17.02m. Although his personal best is 17.19m, which is much better than the distance he recorded at the Commonwealth Games. With his jump of 17.02m, he ensured silver for India at Commonwealth Games, 2022.

If Aboobacker would have recorded this jump at the Tokyo Olympics he would have been in the eighth position. He would have been ahead of Yaoqing Fang of China, who recorded a distance of 17.01m in the finals.

Avinash Sable (Men’s 3000m Steeplechase)

Avinash Sable got ahead of Kenyan Amos Serem in the men’s 3000m steeplechase event. Breaking that wall was not a simple task as Kenyans have been winning it for a very long time. He recorded his personal best timing of 8:11.20 at Birmingham to win the silver medal. That must have been the run of his life and he would keep making it better ahead in his career.

If Avinash Sable would have recorded this timing at the Tokyo Olympics he would have won a bronze medal. The bronze medalist in Tokyo, Benjamin Kigen from Kenya recorded the timing of 8:11.45, which is more than Sable’s timing at Birmingham. He would have still been behind Soufiane Elbakkali and Lamecha Girma, who recorded the timing of 8:08.9 and 8:10.38 respectively for gold and silver medals.

Annu Rani (Women’s Javelin Throw)

Annu Rani won a bronze medal for India at Birmingham in the women’s javelin throw by marking a distance of 60m with her throw. He didn’t exceed her personal best with her throw, which was 61.21m, but still had enough to win bronze at the Commonwealth Games, 2022.

If Annu Rani would have recorded 60m at Tokyo she would have ended at 8th position ahead of Mackenzie Little from Australia who recorded the throw of 59.96m in the finals. Although Rani would have been around 6m short of the Gold medal and 4m short of medal contention as the Gold medalist (Shiying Liu) recorded a distance of 66.34m and the Bronze medalist (Kelsey Lee Roberts) recorded a distance of 64.56m.  

Tejaswin Shankar (Men’s High Jump)

Tejaswin Shankar reached Birmingham after some controversies and the Delhi High Court decided his arrival at the village after giving the verdict in his favour which resulted in a bronze medal. Shankar recorded a distance of 2.22m in the finals of the men’s high jump and captured the bronze medal for India. His personal best is although 2.29, which is better than his performance at Birmingham.

If Shankar would have recorded a distance jump of 2.22m at the Tokyo Olympics he would have been below Naoto Tobe who recorded a distance of 2.24m and stood in 13th position. The gold medal jump was 2.37m recorded by Mutaz Essa Barshim from Qatar and the bronze medal by Maksim Nedasekaran with the same distance.

To conclude the analysis, the performance of Avinash Sable was the only performance that would have won a medal for India at the Tokyo Olympics. The other wonderful performances by our athletes at Birmingham coincidently would have led all of them to seventh and eighth positions at the 2020 Summer Olympics. There is no doubt that Indian athletes have to improve more to clinch medals at the Olympics.

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