World Para Athletics Grand Prix off to a quiet start

World Para Athletics Grand Prix in India serves as a training ground for newcomers with limited international participation.

The World Para Athletics Grand Prix began at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here on Tuesday but with a largely Indian field and few big names in action, the event is being considered more as a training event for newcomers and a testing ground for the organisers.

Day one of the event, part of the International Paralympic Committee’s annual Grand Prix circuit – similar to the Diamond League meets by World Athletics – saw few known names in action. With the more prestigious World Championships to be held in September, officials admitted this was not part of the regular schedule for most athletes but insisted it gave a chance to youngsters to not just gain valuable experience but also get their international classifications done at home.

Quite a few events had three or fewer entries and some, like the men’s High Jump T42, had four-- all Indians – with three failing to turn up. Among those were 2016 bronze medalist Varun Singh Bhati and 2022 Asiad medalist Shailesh Kumar.

Classification is crucial for para athletes to decide their competition categories and ensure they participate in the right category to avoid disqualification. “When I went to Dubai for a Grand Prix for the first time 11 years back, there were 175 athletes. We are doing it for the first time and in its first year, I think the participation is incredible. But we have to remember that the World Championships is the most important event for the year and for most athletes, training is scheduled accordingly to peak at that time,” PCI president Devendra Jhajharia explained on most big names skipping the event.

Among the few who did participate was Paris double medalist Preeti Pal (100m T35/36/38/44), who finished second here behind Rhiannon Clarke of Australia. “We are still in the off season and haven’t really trained at all. Given that, I am satisfied with my performance. But my target is to go under 14 seconds at the Worlds and I am confident of doing that,” Preeti said.

In the men’s 100m (T11, T12), Brazil’s Paris Paralympic silver medalist Joeferson Marinho de Oliveira won in 11.17 seconds. Asian Paralympic Committee president Majid Rashed of UAE too defended the event. “I don’t see the participation as a problem because it’s the first edition and is being held at a very short notice. We have been hosting the Dubai Grand Prix for 16 years and we still face the same challenge of participation and performance levels going down every time after the Paralympics,” he explained.