World Athletics Championships 2023: Indian athletes, schedule, and medals hopefuls

Neeraj Chopra winning a medal at the World Athletic Championships 2023 in Budapest is as much a certainty as anything can be in sports.

We are living in the golden age—arguably the greatest ever epoch—of athletics. Barring the men’s 100 and 200 metre races, where Usain Bolt performed singular, outlier feats of near-impossibility between 2008 and 2012, just about every other track and field discipline has seen records tumbling—constantly broken and rebroken, with breathtaking rivalries on the track pushing athletes to go farther and faster—in the last few years. Since just 2020, records have fallen—in some instances smashed in a way that has changed the sport—in Men’s 5000m, 10,000m, half-marathon, marathon, 3000m steeplechase, 400m hurdles, pole vault, shot put, and Women’s 1500m, Mile, 2000m, 5000m, 10,000m, half-marathon, 100m hurdles, 400m hurdles, triple jump and 20km race walk.

We’ve witnessed such unbelievable races as the men’s 400m hurdles at the Tokyo Olympics, where not just the gold medallist, Norway’s Karsten Warholm, but also the silver and bronze medallists all broke the previous world record.

When the World Athletics Championships kicks off in Budapest today (August 19-27), with more than 2,000 athletes from around the world competing, expect a week of amazing feats of human physicality and sensational performances.

For us, there is the added pleasure of knowing that we have one of the leaders of his field in action—Neeraj Chopra, the reigning Olympic champion in javelin, is also only the second Indian to win a World Athletics Championship medal, after Anju Bobby George, when he bagged a silver last year at Oregon, USA.

At last year’s championship, Chopra was India’s lone medallist, but this time around we find ourselves in the unprecedented position of having a couple of more medal hopefuls in the 27-member squad that has travelled to the Hungarian capital.

Here’s a comprehensive look at the Indians in action, as well as some of the most anticipated events and international stars at the world championships, which will be streamed by JioCinema in India.

Neeraj Chopra, king of javelin

Will he, won’t he? We are talking of course about the 90m-mark. A magic number in javelin. That Chopra will win a medal at the worlds is pretty much a certainty (as much as anything is a certainty in sports or life), but the big question that he will seek to answer for himself is whether he can go past that 90m-mark in competition. He has come so close. His best throw this year is 88.67m, but last year he breached 89m thrice, with a personal best of 89.94m.

He is also remarkably consistent, he has almost forgotten what it is to throw anything below 88m, which heralds possible gold at the world championship (which will make him the first Indian to do so), and at the Asian Games just a month down the line.

Chopra has had perhaps his best training period yet this year, secluding himself in Finland and then the US with his coach Klaus Bartonietz, and competing on the prestigious Diamond League circuit.

Bartonietz did not want to reveal if Chopra has hit 90m in practice during a recent conversation, but in his usual playful way, he hinted that it has been done. “He has certainly hit the release velocity for it many times,” Bartonietz said.

The release velocity is the speed imparted to the javelin by the thrower at the time of release. Unless there is a stiff headwind, or the throw was inaccurately directed, if Chopra has managed the release velocity, he has also managed the distance.

The year’s best long jump belongs to Jeswin Aldrin

8.42m—that’s what the 21-year-old Aldrin, from Mudalur in Tamil Nadu, has jumped this year, in March at the National Open Jumps competition.

It’s a distance that no one else in the world has managed this year, and it would have handily won him the gold at last year’s Athletics World Championships. The gold-medal winning jump at the Tokyo Olympics is 0.01m short of Aldrin’s mark.

Neither was it a flash in the pan. Aldrin has crossed 8 metres twice more since. Then an injury laid him low, but he has bounced back since with a 8.22m jump at the CITIUS Meeting in Bern, where he won gold.

But getting the long jump right on the day of a big competition is notoriously tricky. At last year’s world championships, Aldrin had failed to qualify, jumping well below his personal best during the qualification round. It also explains why the Tokyo gold was won with a jump of 8.41m by the Greek Milriadis Tentoglu, whose personal best is 8.6m.

A critical factor for success in long jump is experience—how often an athlete competes at the top level and is at ease with his or her process in the midst of the stress and intangibles of high-level competition goes a long way in determining a medal-winning jump. Aldrin was a rookie last year. He has come some way since then. A medal is certainly not out of his reach.

Aldrin or Sreeshankar, who is your pick?

If Aldrin has the best jump of the year so far, Murali Sreeshankar, his compatriot from Kerala, has the second best at 8.41m. The difference between these two rising stars? Experience.

Unlike Aldrin, Sreeshankar has gone toe to toe with some of the world’s best at the elite stage and has been acquiring the confidence and know-how of how to perform under pressure for the last couple of years. This will be the 24-year-old’s third consecutive world championship appearance. He had failed to qualify for the finals in his first one, qualified and finished seventh last year, and will be looking for a podium finish this year in what is a logical progression. It will help if Aldrin is also at his best—the two friends hit their peak when they compete against each other.

Sreeshankar has given us a glimpse of his learning curve last month when he and China’s Lin Yu-Tang fought a nail-biting duel for the Asian Championship title in Bangkok. Lin had set the challenge with a 8.40m jump, and Sreeshankar gamely whittled away at it, hitting 8m and above in five of his six attempts, only to fall short by 3 centimetres. For a world’s medal, all he needs to do is stick to his form, hard-earned by training in Texas and competing in the Diamond League this season. A medal in Budapest will also make him a serious contender for a medal at the Paris Olympics, for which he has already qualified, courtesy his Asian silver.

Avinash Sable’s pioneering runs

Does a runner from India stand a chance in the 3000m Steeplechase, a middle-distance event that is dominated by athletes from East Africa?

On a balmy August day in London last year, Sable did the unthinkable. He won a silver at the Commonwealth Games in an event where runners from Kenya have won every medal on offer in every edition since 1998.

Sable’s story is miraculous any way you look at it. He has broken a four-decade-long national record 10 times in the last three years. He comes from the drought-prone Marathwada region in Maharashtra, where he almost joined his parents as a daily-wage labourer at a brick kiln after their crops failed. He began running seriously when a teacher from his school intervened and told his parents that he would take care of all of the young boy’s meals and expenses if they kept him in school instead of taking him to the brick kiln. His running form was rediscovered when he joined the army, where a coach accidentally spotted him and decided to take him on.

Sable had a poor time at last year’s world championships, where he struggled to find form in a tactically slow race. He made up for that less than a month later at the Commonwealth Games with a timing of 8:11.20, his best.

This year, he comes with all the experience of consistently running at the top level—Sable also competes in the Diamond League—the highs and the lows, the strategies and nuances, and a keener understanding of his own abilities.

Avinash Sable won a silver at the 2022 Commonwealth Games. (Image source: Twitter / Avinash3000m)

Shaili Singh

The 19-year-old from Uttar Pradesh, coached by the only Indian athlete ever to medal at the worlds—Anju Bobby George—is not yet a medal contender at the global level, but she holds so much promise that it will be a pity not to watch her in action at the biggest stage she has ever competed in.

The girl from Jhansi was raised by a single mother in difficult economic conditions, and raced barefeet in school because she coud not afford running shoes. Yet, she went on to win a trial which gave her entry into a sports school. When she was 14, and running school athletics meets, she was separately spotted by Anju Bobby George and her husband, the athletics coach Bobby George. When the couple shared notes—they were scouting for young talent to coach and fund via their new foundation—they were pleasantly surprised to find Shaili’s name on both their lists. Since then, Shaili has broken a number of age-group records in India, became the first Indian to win a U-20 World Championship silver medal in long jump, and has notched a personal best that is just a few centimetres short of the long-standing national record held by her coach—6.76m to Anju’s 6.83m. She has also won a silver at the Asian Athletics Championship this year and will be a contender for a medal at the Asian Games in September.

Jyothi Yarraji has serious speed

Another star-in-the-making is the 100m hurdler Jyothi Yarraji. This is really all you need to know about the 23-year-old from Andhra Pradesh—she is the first Indian woman to clock below 13 seconds in the event. Her, personal best, and the national record—which she broke five times in the space of months—is 12.82 seconds. That’s a timing that would have put her in the top six at the Tokyo Olympics. It’s a timing that will win her a medal at the upcoming Asian Games. It’s a timing that will see her run in the final at the world championships. Now isn’t that something? An Indian at the elite level in a sprint event has always been a distant dream. Now Yarraji is out to change that.

Jyothi Yarraji, 23, is the first Indian woman to clock below 13 seconds in 100m hurdles. (File)

Indians at the World Athletics Championship

August 19

Men’s 20m Race Walk Final - 12:20PM IST - Akashdeep Singh, Vikash Singh, Paramjeet Singh

Men’s 3000m Steeplechase Heats - 3:05PM IST - Avinash Sable

Women’s Long Jump Qualification - 3:55PM IST - Shaili Singh

Men’s Triple Jump Qualification - 11:07PM IST - Praveen Chithravel, Abdulla Aboobacker, Eldhouse Paul

August 20

Men’s High Jump Qualification - 2:05PM IST - Sarvesh Anil Kushare

Men’s 400m Hurdles Heats - 2:55PM IST - Santhosh Kumar Tamilarasan

Women’s Long Jump Final - 8:25PM IST - Shaili Singh (if she qualifies)

Men’s 1500m Semifinals - 9:05PM IST - Ajay Kumar Saroj (if he qualifies)

August 21

Men’s 400m Hurdles Semifinal - 11:03PM IST - Santhosh Kumar Tamilarasan (if he qualifies)

Men’s Triple Jump Final - 11:10PM IST - Praveen Chithravel, Abdulla Aboobacker, Eldhouse Paul (if they qualify)

August 22

Women’s 100m Hurdles Heats - 10:10PM IST - Jyothi Yarraji

Men’s 800m Heats - 10:50PM IST - Krishan Kumar

Men’s High Jump Final - 11:28PM IST - Sarvesh Anil Kushare (if he qualifies)

Men’s 3000m Steeplechase Final - 1:12AM IST (August 23) - Avinash Sable (if he qualifies)

August 23

Women’s Javelin Throw Qualification - 1:50PM IST - Annu Rani

Men’s Long Jump Qualification - 2:45PM IST - M Sreeshankar, Jeswin Aldrin

Women’s 3000m Steeplechase Heats - 11:15PM IST - Parul Chaudhary

Women’s 100m Hurdles Semifinal - 12:10AM IST (August 24) - Jyothi Yarraji (if she qualifies)

Men’s 1500m Final - 12:45AM IST (August 24) - Ajay Kumar Saroj (if he qualifies)

Men’s 400m Hurdles Final - 1:20AM IST (August 24) - Santhosh Kumar Tamilarasan (if he qualifies)

August 24

Men’s 35km Race Walk Final - 10:30AM IST - Ram Baboo

Men’s Long Jump Final - 11PM IST - M Sreeshankar, Jeswin Aldrin (if they qualify)

Men’s 800m Semifinals - 12:20AM IST (August 25) - Krishan Kumar (if he qualifies)

Women’s 100m Hurdles - 12:52AM IST (August 25) - Jyothi Yarraji (if she qualifies)

August 25

Men’s Javelin Throw Qualification - 1:40PM IST - Neeraj Chopra, D.P. Manu, Kishore Jena

Women’s Javelin Throw Final - 11:50PM IST - Annu Rani (if she qualifies)

August 26

Men’s 4x400m Relay Heats - 11PM IST - Amoj, Jacob, Muhammed Anas, Muhammed Ajmal, Rajesh Ramesh, Arul Rajalingam, Mijo Chacko Kurian

Men’s 800m Final - 12AM IST (August 27) - Krishan Kumar (if he qualifies)

August 27

Men’s Javelin Throw Final - 11:45PM IST - Neeraj Chopra, D.P. Manu, Kishore Jena (if they qualify)

Women’s 3000m Steeplechase Final - 12:35AM IST (August 28) - Parul Chaudhary (if she qualifies)

Men’s 4x400m Relay Final - 1:07AM IST (August 28) - Amoj, Jacob, Muhammed Anas, Muhammed Ajmal, Rajesh Ramesh, Arul Rajalingam, Mijo Chacko Kurian (if they qualify)

International stars in the fray

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, arguably the greatest female sprinter ever and inarguably the most decorated sprinter in world championship history, will be gunning for her sixth 100m title.

The women’s 100 and 200m sprints have become the most anticipated events in major track competitions in recent years, because of the incredibly rich field—Fraser-Pryce has stiff competition from fellow Jamaican Shericka Jackson, the fastest 200m runner alive, and American teen sensation Sha’Carri Richardson.

The men’s 200m field is also sparkling—with American Noah Lyles, his compatriot and Olympic silver medallist Kenny Bednarek, and rising stars Erryon Knighton—often spoken of as the next Usain Bolt—and Letsile Tebogo all in the fray.

But the most fiery of all races may well be the men’s 400m hurdles, where the incredible Karsten Warholm, unbeaten this season, will take on Brazil’s Alison dos Santos and USA’s Rai Benjamin in what promises to be a repeat of the Tokyo Olympics race where all three broke the previous world record, and Warholm set the new one at a jaw-dropping 45.94 seconds.

Then there is the matter of women’s 1500m and 5000m. On the one hand there’s Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon, 2016 and 2021 Olympic champion, who has set three world records just this season. On the other hand you have Dutch-Ethiopian athlete Sifan Hassan, who will be repeating her incredible Tokyo Olympics feat of competing in the 1,500, 5,000 and 10,000m races at a single event. In Tokyo, she won an unprecedented two golds and one bronze (1,500m). Two once-in-a-generation runners bidding to outdo each other in a historic rivalry.

Then there is Armand Duplantis in Pole Vault—the Swedish-American has broken the world record so many times, it seems like he will do it at every single competition. A must watch.