tiol Open Athletics begins today

CHENI, Sep 24: The country's top track and field athletes will be seen in action in the four-day 57th tiol Open Athletics Championships 2017, beginning at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on Monday.

Around 1200 athletes from various states and departments/public sector undertakings would be taking part in the meet, Tamil du Athletics Association (TA) officials said.

The focus would be on Govindan Lakshman, who recently won a gold in Asian Indoor Games in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, after capturing two gold in the Asian Athletics Championships in Bhubaneswar and on javelin thrower Davinder Singh Kang, who qualified for the fil round at the World Championships in London recently.

Lakshman has been in good form in recent months and his golden run has extended to the meet in Ashgabat. He would be participating in the Championships despite having returned to the country a couple of days ago.

The Pudukottai athlete, who will represent Services, has said he would like to do well in the Championships and then focus was on next year's Commonwealth and the Asian Games.

Meanwhile, Kerala's 1500m runner PU Chitra, whose omission from the London World Championships had led to a furore and a court case, will also miss the tiols. Chitra, who had won a gold in the Asian Indoor Games recently, is reportedly taking a break after being on the road for some time now.

Apart from representing state teams, numerous athletes would be participating on behalf of their institutions. Among the institutions to be represented include All India Police Sports Board, ONGC, LIC, apart from the Railways and Services. Athletes from Railways and Services are expected to domite proceedings as would those representing Athletics Federation of India (AFI).

The host state - Tamil du - would be represented by 41 men and 35 women athletes. They would be eager to win a clutch of medals in front of the home crowd. Officials were overseeing fil preparations before Monday's iuguration.  IANS