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In a busy season that features the Asian Championships and Asian Games, Jyothi Yarraji and Amlan Borgohain will look to get into their groove at the Federation Cup from May 15 to May 18 in Ranchi.
Amlan, in particular, will have happy memories of the tournament, having broken the men's 200m national record in the last edition. The tournament is important as the athletes will be looking to build towards the Asian Championships, which will happen in Thailand in July. A good performance at the Federation Cup followed by a good display at the Inter-State Senior Championships should help athletes make the Indian contingent for the Asian Championships. Jyothi, the national record holder in the 100m hurdles event, will also compete in the 200m event. She comes into the tournament on the back of solid form, having won gold in the 100m hurdles event at Indian Grand Prix 3 and then following it up with another gold in 200m at Indian Grand Prix 4. With major continental and world events coming up later in the year, Jyothi and Amlan would be looking to peak in time for those. Amlan, who did the 100 and 200 double at both IGP 3 and IGP 4, will compete in just the 200m event this time. Ahead of the tournament coach James Hillier, who trains both Jyothi and Amlan at the Reliance Foundation, said, "We are hoping to get some good performances there and get a good number of athletes from our program to the team for the Asian Championships. It's a big competition for us." Sapna Kumari, who is the second fastest runner in the 100m hurdles event behind Jyothi, would look to continue her good form from the last 12 months. In the men's 110m hurdles event, Tejas Shirse will look to improve on his personal best further after clocking a time of 13.81s in a gold-medal winning effort at IGP 3. The pole vault competition will see an exciting tussle between national record holder Rosy Meena Paulraj and Baranica Elangovan, who won gold at the Indian Grand Prix in April. Both of them are training partners at the Odisha Reliance Foundation High-Performance Centre. Reigning national 800m champion Mohammed Afsal will also be kicking off his season in the 800m category at the Federation Cup. A total of 30+ athletes from the Reliance Foundation will be participating in the championships. (ANI)
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