With only 45 days left for the Paris Olympics, Indian athletes are back on the ground aiming to qualify. Malayalis M P Jabir, Nayana James, Ancy Sojan, Jisna Mathew and others will compete in the Indian Grand Prix Athletics at the Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru on Wednesday. Javelin thrower Kishore Kumar Jena, who has already qualified for the Paris Olympics, is also in the competition.

M P Jabir, who competed in the 400m hurdles at the Tokyo Olympics, finished first in the Grand Prix held in Chennai last month with a time of 49.94 seconds, narrowly missing the Olympic qualification mark. The Malappuram Pandalur native will take to the track on Wednesday aiming to break the qualifying mark of 48.70 seconds.

In the women's long jump, Malayalis Nayana James and Ancy Sojan are competing. Ancy, who won silver with a long jump of 6.63 meters in the last Asian Games, and Nayana, who jumped 6.55 meters in the Indian Open jump held in Bengaluru two months ago, are aiming for qualification. The qualifying distance for this category is 6.86 meters.