 New Delhi : It is an opportunity long awaited by both athletes and officials. The remodelled Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium (JNS) will host the Asian All-Star Athletics meet from Jul 29.
Vikas Gowda, the former American national collegiate champion in discus throw, will be the main attraction on the evening. The Indian record-holder (64.96m set in 2007) has the season's best of 63.22m to his credit.
Sri Lanka's Manjula Kumara Wijesekara, the reigning Asian champion and a student in United States, tops the roster among the men high jumpers. He will get stiff competition from Kazakhstan's Vitaliy Tsykunov, Asian Indoor Games victor and Doha Asian Games champion Jean-Claude Rabbath of Lebanon.
The women's long jump field looks strong with the trio of Indian jumpers - MA Prajusha, Mayookha Johny and Reshmi Bose - ready to make an impact.
China's Yang Yanbo and Liu Jing are a cut above the rest in the women's shot put. Indian middle distance star Tintu Luka is a strong bet in women's 800m, as also her teammate Prakash Verma on men's side.
Indian athletes will be the top draw in 400m with Sini Jose raring to go in the women's race while Kuwait's Fawaz Dahesh Al-Shammari has a point to prove in men's 110m hurdles. The 33-year-old athlete had won one of the three leg Asian Grand Prix series at Bangalore this year. With the absence of ace Chinese hurdler Ji Wei, he will be challenged by Thailand's South East Asian Games champion Jumrut Rittidet.
Kazakh hurdler Anastasiya Soprunova, who made a clean sweep of medals in the AGP with a season's best of 13.31 secs in Bangalore leg last month, will be pushed by India's Gayathry Govindaraj, who posted a National junior best of 13.59 secs while taking part in the World junior championships at Moncton (Canada) hardly a week ago.
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