<p>Bengaluru: The Road to Paris Olympics has been gathering steam and a clutch of top Indian athletes will be looking to book their tickets to the French capital in the opening leg of the Indian Grand Prix here on Tuesday.</p>.<p>Leading the charge in trying to attain the Olympic qualifying standard at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium will be the reigning Asian Games champion and Asian Championships’ shot put gold-medallist Tajinderpal Singh Toor.</p>.<p>The 29-year-old Punjabi, who checked into the City last week as one of the brand ambassadors for a 10K run, is certain to grab the gold given he has only two other not-so-strong competitors to fight against.</p>.<p>The national record holder, however, knows it’s not the gold that matters but the distance given how close the Olympics are. The Olympic qualifying standard is 21.50 metres, a distance which he has surpassed in the past.</p>.<p>So come Tuesday evening when the weather is expected to be hot, Tajinderpal will be looking to raise his stock higher by securing a Paris ticket that willl give the continental champion enough time to train for the biggest event of the season.</p>.<p>A quartet of athletes to watch out for are long-jumper Muhammed Anees, triple-jumper Eldhose Paul, Karnataka’s javelin-thrower Manu DP and talented women’s long-jumper Shaili Singh.</p>.<p>Manu is third in the pecking order behind reigning Olympic and Asian Games champion Neeraj Chopra and Kishore Kumar Jena, a silver medallist at the continental bash last year in Hangzhou.</p>.<p>Both Neeraj and Jena have sealed their Paris tickets but Manu, hoping to maximise the home conditions, will be keen to prove his worth as well. However, he faces a Herculean challenge as he will have to hurl the javelin past his personal best of 84.35 metres with the qualifying mark set at 85.50.</p>.<p>Shaili, the gifted 20-year-old who trains under Robert Bobby George, has been tipped for bigger things given her steady rise in the circuit. While the Paris mark is 6.86 metres, Shaili, who won a silver at the Asian Athletics Championships in Bangkok last year, has only a personal best of 6.76M. Whether she can uncork something special and show that she indeed is one for the future, remains to be seen.</p>.<p>A fair amount of spotlight is certain to be on Hima Das, the sprinter who will be returning to action following a National Anti-Doping Agency’s withdrawal of her suspension. The 24-year-old, who will be competing in the 200m, was provisionally suspended by the NADA last year for three wherabouts failures in 12 months.</p>
<p>Bengaluru: The Road to Paris Olympics has been gathering steam and a clutch of top Indian athletes will be looking to book their tickets to the French capital in the opening leg of the Indian Grand Prix here on Tuesday.</p>.<p>Leading the charge in trying to attain the Olympic qualifying standard at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium will be the reigning Asian Games champion and Asian Championships’ shot put gold-medallist Tajinderpal Singh Toor.</p>.<p>The 29-year-old Punjabi, who checked into the City last week as one of the brand ambassadors for a 10K run, is certain to grab the gold given he has only two other not-so-strong competitors to fight against.</p>.<p>The national record holder, however, knows it’s not the gold that matters but the distance given how close the Olympics are. The Olympic qualifying standard is 21.50 metres, a distance which he has surpassed in the past.</p>.<p>So come Tuesday evening when the weather is expected to be hot, Tajinderpal will be looking to raise his stock higher by securing a Paris ticket that willl give the continental champion enough time to train for the biggest event of the season.</p>.<p>A quartet of athletes to watch out for are long-jumper Muhammed Anees, triple-jumper Eldhose Paul, Karnataka’s javelin-thrower Manu DP and talented women’s long-jumper Shaili Singh.</p>.<p>Manu is third in the pecking order behind reigning Olympic and Asian Games champion Neeraj Chopra and Kishore Kumar Jena, a silver medallist at the continental bash last year in Hangzhou.</p>.<p>Both Neeraj and Jena have sealed their Paris tickets but Manu, hoping to maximise the home conditions, will be keen to prove his worth as well. However, he faces a Herculean challenge as he will have to hurl the javelin past his personal best of 84.35 metres with the qualifying mark set at 85.50.</p>.<p>Shaili, the gifted 20-year-old who trains under Robert Bobby George, has been tipped for bigger things given her steady rise in the circuit. While the Paris mark is 6.86 metres, Shaili, who won a silver at the Asian Athletics Championships in Bangkok last year, has only a personal best of 6.76M. Whether she can uncork something special and show that she indeed is one for the future, remains to be seen.</p>.<p>A fair amount of spotlight is certain to be on Hima Das, the sprinter who will be returning to action following a National Anti-Doping Agency’s withdrawal of her suspension. The 24-year-old, who will be competing in the 200m, was provisionally suspended by the NADA last year for three wherabouts failures in 12 months.</p>