India's contingent to the Rio Olympics swelled to over a 100 - the largest ever for the quadrennial event - when quarter-miler Mohammad Anas, participating in a qualifying event in faraway Poland, made the grade to become the 100th Indian to seal a berth for Rio de Janeiro.
Anas clocked 45.40 seconds in the men 400m to equal the qualification mark and win gold in the Poland National Athletics Championships in Bydgoszcz. In doing so, the 21year-old also smashed his own national mark of 45.44s. “This has to be the best moment in my career. It hasn't sunk in yet that I'm going to the Olympics,” the Kerala runner gushed.
The 100 mark was soon crossed (103 at the time of writing) when the Kosanov Memorial Meet in Almaty, Kazakhstan, scene of Dutee Chand's history-making women's 100m qualification a day earlier, saw her training partner and rival, Srabani Nanda complete a rare double by winning the Rio berth in the 200m.
The Odisha sprinter clocked 23.07sec, a good 0.13 seconds off the Olympic qualifying mark of 23.20, and won bronze at Almaty. Rachita Mistry was the last Indian woman to qualify for the women's 200m, at the Sydney Olympics 16 years ago. Not to be outdone, Morena boy Ankit Sharma smashed the existing long jump national record with 8.19m to win the gold in Almaty and also ensure his passage to Rio. Ankit had earlier leapt to 8.17m, better than the qualifying standard of 8.15m.
Elsewhere, archer Atanu Das was selected for the men's recurve event following trials in Bengaluru.
With the Indian track and field numbers already at a high with 23 qualifiers, the Indian contingent could further increase in the coming weeks with more athletes likely to find themselves in the fray.
The boxing team could see three more qualifying at the final Venezuela meet next month. In aquatics, five swimmers have already made the cut, while the last qualifier in Hong Kong next month to determine how many swimmers go or whether India is awarded a wild card.
Despite the 36 hockey players - both men and women squads - forming the regular feature at the Olympics, the Indian Olympic contingent this time would be the largest ever. While the London Olympics four years ago saw a 83-strong Indian contingent, in April, the then sports minister Sarbananda Sonowal told the Parliament that the ministry had forecast a team of around 90 athletes, with 10-plus medals being targeted.
Yet, in what can dampen the ministry's forecasts of a bullish medal tally, according to projections by Infostrada, leading sports database providers and forecasters, India would end up at No. 46th in the medals tally, with only one gold (mixed doubles tennis) and three bronze (women's archery, team; Shiva Thapa in boxing and Jitu Rai in pistol shooting) to show for its 100-plus presence at Rio.
