A large athletics contingent, led by world number four long jumper Anju Bobby George and Commonwealth Games discus throw silver medallist Seema Antil, will represent India at the three Asian Grand Prix events slated later this month.
The 26 Indian competitors will test themselves against the best in Asia at Bangkok (May 18), Bangalore (May 22) and Pune (May 26).
Anju, who disappointed with a sixth place finish at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games, will expect to regain her winning form as she is the highest ranked athlete in her event at the three competitions. Her main rivals at the three meets are expected to be China's Liu Huahua and Torres Marestella of the Philippines.
Antil, who came back into the limelight with a silver medal at Melbourne, will face a tough fight from compatriots Harwant Kaur and Krishna Poonia in the women's discus throw but the one to beat would be China's Song Aimin, who has an attempt of 65.23 metres to her credit.
Among the men, Amritpal Singh and Mahan Singh are expected to be among the top contenders in the long jump with efforts of 8.08m and 7.99 to their names respectively.
Another Indian to watch out for could be Anil Kumar P who holds the national 100m record of 10.30m set in August last year.
Ranvijay Singh and Navpreet Singh could be in medal reckoning in shot put while Jagdish Kumar Bishnoi will fly the Indian flag in javelin throw, along with Anil Singh.
In the women's 400m, Manjit Kaur, part of the silver winning team in the 4x400m at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games, and Satti Geeta are the top contenders while Anuradha Biswal will compete in the 100m hurdles.
Pinki Pramanik would be running in the 800m while Rajwinder Kaur will be in action in the 200m, but they only have an outside chance of landing a medal at the three meets.
The Indian duo in the 400m hurdles, Joseph Abraham and Gurpreet Singh will struggle to end among the top three while in high jump, Hari Shanker Roy would have to improve on his personal best to be in medal contention.
The best double lapper in the country, Ghamanda Ram has only an outside chance in the 800m like compatriot Francis Sagairaj whereas Sunil Kumar and Pritam Bind are not expected to set the tracks on fire in the long distance races.
Bhupinder Singh and Satbir Singh will have to work hard to keep up with the pace in the men's 400m.
The three Asian Grand Prix meets assume significance as they would serve as qualifying meets for the lucrative IAAF Golden League events starting in June.
The six Golden League meetings will be held at Oslo, Paris, Rome, Zurich, Brussels and Berlin.
The athlete who wins an event in all six meets will be richer by USD one million and also receive a bar made of solid gold.
