India enter World Athletics Championships with low expectations

The IAAF World Athletics Championships will kick off in Doha, Qatar, on Friday evening with the young S Sreeshankar providing the opening act for the Indian contingent in the long jump event.

Long jumper Anju Bobby George is the only Indian to ever win a medal at the World Championship and that record is unlikely to change this year despite the euphoria surrounding the performance of some of the athletes at the invitational meets in Europe, where most of them were training for over two months.

Anju in a recent interview said as much when she said that the focus of the Indian contingent should be to reach the final. “I don’t think we have sure-shot medal winners this time. But we have athletes who have the quality to reach the finals and they should ensure that first,” she was quoted as saying by The Telegraph.