kochi gone are the days when kerala athletes used to lead indias medal charge in track and field events in asian games forget gold podium finishers from the state in athletics at asian games have dwindled in the last three editions three in 2006 three in 2010 and two in 2014 as the athletics events begin at gelora bung karno stadium the main venue from saturday till august 30 kerala athletes are in jakarta high on hopes so far 13 athletes from the state have confirmed their berths in the indian athletics contingentjinson johnson represents keralas best bet for a medal in jakarta the 27yearold from chakkittapara in kozhikode district grabbed eyeballs in the national senior interstate athletics meet held at guwahati in july when he clocked 14565 seconds to clinch the mens 800m gold erasing the longest standing indian record held by legendary sriram singh sriram had clocked 14577s during the 800m run at the 1976 montreal olympic games and that record had proved insurmountable in the last four decades till jinson chose to make it his ownthough he is ranked asia no1 in 800m jinson feels it would count for nothing once the race starts you know it is a technical race if you can wriggle out of the box only then you can go clear and think of winning the race all runners will try to win no doubt but a bunch of them can slow down the pace as well and prevent you from taking lead however i will give it my best shot said jinson who would also be competing in the 1500m in jakartaanother kerala athlete who would be hoping to make her asian games debut memorable would be pu chitra womens 1500m chitra who had fought a battle with the afi in court after being unjustifiably removed from the indian contingent for the world athletics championship in london last year would be keen to prove a point in jakarta the petite girl who hails from mundur village in palakkad is labelled as asian queen of mile after she won the both outdoor and indoor gold medals this season in the asian championshipsi am not bothered about timings obviously you must win a medal of any colour to be remembered i am dreaming of being on the podium on august 30 at 8pm in jakarta with indian flag wrapped around me that will make my day i will forget whatever i suffered said chitra who is currently no1 in the continent in 1500m with a time of 41155smohammed anas would be featuring in three events in jakarta 200m 400 and mens 4x400m relay and his performance in his pet event the 400m would be keenly watchedthe lad from nilamel in kollam twice bettered his own 400m nation record in space of a few weeks the first time anas broke the record was during the gold coast commonwealth games where he finished a commendable fourth and three weeks ago in czech republic in grand