Olympics 2024 Athletics: India's best vs World's best

Athletics has always been one of the marquee events of any multi-sport tournament. It will again offer exciting and thrilling action at the forthcoming Paris Olympics starting from July 26 to August 11.

Indian athletics has always shown some extremely great performances at the Olympics, being it the iconic performance of Legendary Milkha Singh and P.T. Usha or the historic gold of Indian stalwart, Neeraj Chopra at the Tokyo Olympics.

However, the gap between world athletics and Indian athletes is still quite big even though Neeraj's heroics have started a new wave of Athletics in India and the number of athletes turning up for national international events is highly increasing.

Indian athletes entered in the 17 different disciplines at the Paris Olympics which is comparatively higher than the Tokyo Olympics, where they entered in 14 disciplines.

Here, The Bridge is analyzing the Indian Athletics contingent versus the world's best in this current Olympic cycle:

Throwing events

Indians have always been there at the major athletics events when we talk about the throwing events. India's only athletics gold in the Olympics has also come in the Javelin Throw won by Neeraj Chopra.

India has four representatives at the Paris Olympics in throwing events, three in Javelin throw and one has qualified for the Shot Put.

Men's Javelin: Neeraj Chopra (89.94m), Kishore Jena (87.54)

The list of World Leads (WL): 2024 - 90.20m, 2023 - 89.51m, 2022 - 93.07m.

Average of the season bests of top athletes in the last 3 years:

Jakub Vadlejch (CZE) - 89.68m

Neeraj Chopra (IND) - 89.06m

Julian Weber (GER) - 88.87m

These three are the most consistent javelin throwers in the world from the last three years and will be the big favorites to get a podium finish in Paris 2024.

However, Anderson Peters (GRN - 93.07m), Arshad Nadeem (PAK - 90.18m), and Oliver Helander (FIN - 89.83m) have shown good throws of 87m+ on various occasions and will pose a threat for the top three.

The other Indian javelin thrower, Kishore Jena, had a great year in 2023, notching a personal best of 87.54m at the Asian Games. But, he is still inconsistent and needs a great performance at these games to challenge the top athletes.

Women's Javelin throw: Annu Rani (63.82m)

The list of World Leads (WL): 2024 - 66.70m, 2023 - 67.38m, 2022 - 68.11m.

Average of the season bests of top athletes versus Annu Rani in last 3 years.

Haruka Kitaguchi (JPN) - 65.78m

Flor Denis Hurtado (COL) - 65.04m

Maggie Malone (USA) - 64.92m

Annu Rani (IND) - 62.47m

Haruka is the most consistent Javelin thrower in the women's category and will be the favourite to win the gold medal at the Olympics. However, she can face tough competition from the other two competitors who are very consistent on the circuit.

Meanwhile, Asian champion, Annu Rani is currently very much behind the leading pack and has touched the 60m mark only twice in the qualification period of Paris 2024, the best was 62.92 at the Asian Games.

Jumping events

India has developed a significant amount of domestic competition in the jumping events, mostly in the triple jump, and long jump events. Multiple jumpers from India have consistently participated in the world championships over the years.

At the Paris Olympics also, India has four representatives in jumping events, two in the triple jump and one each in the Long and High jump.

Men's Triple jump: Praveen Chithravel (17.37m), Abdulla Aboobacker (17.19m)

The list of World Leads (WL): 2024 - 18.18m, 2023 - 17.87m, 2022 - 17.95m.

Average of the season bests of top athletes Vs Indians in last 3 years.

Jordan Alejandro Diaz Fortun (ESP) - 17.88m

Pedro Pichardo (POR) - 17.86m

Andy Diaz Hernanadez (ITA)- 17.61m

These top three athletes are one of the most consistent formers in this discipline closely followed by Jaydon Hibbert (JAM) and Hugues Zango (BUR).

Praveen Chithravel (IND) - 17.22m

Abdulla Aboobacker (IND) - 17.03m

Both of these Indian triple jumpers will be aiming to make it to the final by giving their best. They might even find a top-eight finish but will have that needed a jump near to their personal bests.

Men's Long Jump: Jeswin Aldrin - 8.42m

The list of World Leads (WL): 2024 - 8.65m, 2023 - 8.54m, 2022 - 8.55m

Average of the season bests of top athletes Vs Indians in last 3 years.

Miltiadis Tentoglou (GRE) - 8.57m

Simon Ehammer (SUI) - 8.39m

Wayne Pinnock (JAM) - 8.36m

Tentoglou of Greece is the big favourite to win the title where there is stiff competition for the other two spots with Jamaican, Chinese, and American jumpers in action.

Jeswin Aldrin (IND) - 8.22m

India's Jeswin Aldrin is not much behind the leading pack if finds his PB, but this is looking very unlikely as he had a horrible 2024 (SB= 7.99m). So far this year, he has failed to even achieve an 8m mark in the whole season.

Relay events

Indian men's and women's 4*400m relay teams have confirmed their berth for the Paris Olympics via qualifying event whereas the mixed team has missed out on the quota for the event.

The best three relay timings in the world in the last three years:

Men's 4*400m:

USA - 2:56.17

France - 2:58.45

Great Britain - 2:58.71

The USA team is the clear favourite for the gold medal at the men's 4*400m relay team with the second and third spots open for the other five teams in action to claim opened for the 4-5 teams.

India - 2:59.05

Indian team is currently in the fifth spot as per the best timings of the last three years which means if they again touched their personal best timings they might present a strong challenge to top teams.

Given their impressive performance at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest, the Indian fans will hope for a similar performance at the Olympics.

Women's 4*400m:

USA - 3:17.79

Jamaica - 3:20.72

Great Britain - 3:20.74

India - 3:27.85

Indian women's team has a very huge gap with the top teams in terms of the timings but they still try to give their best and might break the national record or reach the final.

Middle distance running

Indian athletes have always found it difficult in the track events but in the last two years, Indians are doing a decent enough job in this category as well especially the middle distance steeplechase running.

India has one participant each in the men's and women's 3000m steeplechase event and two entries in the women's 5000m running.

Men's Steeplechase: Avinash Sable - 8:09.91

The list of World Leads (WL):

2024 - 8:01.63 - Lamecha Girma (ETH)

2023 - 7:52.11 - Lamecha Girma (ETH)

2022 - 7:58.28 - Soufiane El Bakkali (MAR)

Soufiane and Lamecha are the current big two leaders of this event in the world as they show their class in every event they take part in.

Avinash Sable who has recently broken his national record (8:09.91) and became the first Indian to run a sub-8:10 run is currently the tenth best runner of the year.

He has to repeat a similar performance if he wants to finish near top top 8 at the Olympics but firstly he will aim to time his run well in the tricky qualifying round.

Women's steeplechase: Parul Chaudhary - 9:15.31

The list of World Leads (WL):

2024 - 8:55.09 - Perut Chmutai (UGA)

2023 - 8:50.66 - Winfred Mutile Yavi (BHR)

2022 - 8:53.02 - Norah Jeruto (KAZ)

Winfred Yavi will be the big favorite to take the title in this category while she will face a few threats from African countries like Uganda, Kenya, and Ethiopia.

India's Parul Chaudhary made a big limelight at the 2023 world championships where she broke the Indian national record to qualify for the Paris Olympics. However, she didn't have a great outing this year as her season best is standing at 9:31.38.

Parul will be aiming to make it to her second major final by doing so at the Paris Olympics. But for that, she has to work on her timings and clock a new season best.