City athlete Shadab Pathan will be representing India in the World Athletics Continental Tour to be held at Bhubaneswar. Shadab will participate in his favourite 5000 metres event on Sunday.
A total of 11 runners have confirmed their participation for the race. The World Athletics Continental Tour is part of the official competition programmes of World Athletics. The competition is being organised by Athletics Federation of India with the assistance of Odisha State Government, informed Dr Sharad Suryawanshi, Secretary, Nagpur District Athletics Association. Armyman Shadab is an athlete of Track Star Club and trains under RavindraTong and Umesh Naidu. Shadab will face challenge from India’s Abhishek Pal, who won the bronze medal in the 10,000 metres for India at the 2023 Asian Athletics Championships. Apart from this, his Indian team-mate and 2023 Asian Half Marathon bronze medallist Sawan Barwal, Federation Cup bronze medallist Kiran Matre, Saurabh Kumar, who finished fifth in the same competition and Lovepreet Singh, bronze medallist in the 5000 metres race at the Federation Cup Athletics Championships, will be his main competitors. His other competitors in the 5000 metres race are Bhutan’s Sangay and Gao Zangpo, Nepal’s Mukesh Bahadurpal andWagheri Hossain. Shadab’s best time so far this year is 13 minutes 53.52 seconds in the 5000m race. Nagpur District Athletics Association President Gurudev Nagarale, Vice-Presidents Shekhar Suryawanshi and Nagesh Sahare, Jitendra Ghordadekar, RamchandraWani, Archana Kottewar and others have wished Shadab luck for the competition.