Chris Harmse of South Africa (© Getty Images)
The Athletics competition of the inaugural Afro-Asian Games begins in the Indian city of Hyderabad, tomorrow Tuesday 28 October.
The first ever dual Games between the Asian and African continents commenced last Friday in the Andra Pradesh capital of Hyderabad, with eight different sports being contested by a total of 95 countries - 54 from Africa and 41 from Asia. Besides athletics, the other sports are boxing, football, hockey, shooting, swimming, tennis and weightlifting.
The athletic events of the Afro-Asian Games will be worked off at GMC Balayogi Athletic Stadium, Gachibowli. It also hosted Friday's colourful opening ceremony. The 30,000 capacity ultra modern stadium comprises an 8 lane competition synthetic athletic track and 4-lane synthetic practice track and the latest high-mast lighting for day-night competitions.
The idea of a dual meet for Asian and African continents was first mooted in the early 1960s after their athletes found it hard to win medals at Olympic level. The first meet was started in 1964 as GaNEFo Games (Games of the Newly Emerging Forces) but was later given up due to various reasons.
Almost four decades after the first effort, Indian athletics stalwart Suresh Kalmadi - IAAF Council Member - has played a prominent role in reviving the old idea and hosting the inaugural Afro-Asian Games which shows the sporting powers and unity of Asian and African continent, which has nearly 100 member countries of the Olympic movement.
There is a good possibility of veteran Namibian Olympic medallist Frank Fredericks coming to Hyderabad for the Afro-Asian Games. Indian long jumper Anju George will be seen in action on home soil for the first time since winning the bronze medal at the IAAF World Championship in Paris two months ago.
Organisers said that more than one hundred medalists from the recent African Games have arrived in Hyderabad to take part in the Games. Adding colour to the Games athletic events will be several medallists of the 2002 Busan Asian Games. Amongst the Indian star athletes on show will be Discus thrower Neelam J Singh, Heptathlete Soma Biswas, sprinter Saraswati Saha, middle distance runner K.M. Beenu, and shot putter Bahadur Singh.
Among the medal winning African Games champion athletes taking part at the Afro Asian Games are; Men - Burger Lambrechts (South Africa-Shot gold), Hardius Pienaar (South Africa-Javelin gold); Walid Abdelrazek (Egypt - Javelin silver); Yasser Fathi Ibrahim (Egypt- Shot bronze); Chris Harmse (South Africa - Hammer gold); Samsun Idiata (Nigeria - High Jump bronze); Women - Endurance Ojokolo (Nigeria- 100m silver); Meseret Defar (Ethiopia -5000m gold); Kutre Dulecha (Ethiopia - 1500m gold); Ahmad Marwa (Egypt - Hammer throw gold); Omar El Ghazaly (Egypt - Discus gold), and Wafa Esmail (Egypt - Shot bronze).
The most notable absentee from Asia is Sydney Olympic medallist Susanthika Jayasinghe. Having pulled out of the recent IAAF World Championships in Paris, the 28-year-old 200m Olympic bronze medallist has still not recovered 100% from her Hamstring injury, which has affected her career in recent times. Also out of the Games due to a leg injury is Asian Games women’s triple gold medallist Damayanthi Darsha of Sri Lanka, who is a 400m specialist.
There will be 41 gold medals to be decided in athletics at the Afro Asian Games. The track events will be 100m, 200, 400m, 800m, 1500m, 5000m, 10,000m, 400m hurdles, 4 x 100m relay, 4 x 400m relay, 20km walk for both men and women, in addition to men's 110m hurdles, women's 100m hurdles and men's 3000m steeplechase. There are eight field events for both men and women - High Jump, Long Jump, Triple Jump, Pole Vault, Discus, Javelin, Hammer and Shot. Eight finals are scheduled for Tuesday (28), 17 for Wednesday (29) and another 16 on the final day of the athletic competition (30).
All in all, it all points to an interesting three days of action with athletes from African and Asian continents test their supremacy for the first time in a dual meet. It should turn out to be a good showdown for athletes in the two continents before next year's Olympic Games in Athens.
