New Delhi: India on Friday named a 59-member team for the upcoming Asian Athletics Championship in South Korea with star javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra expectedly skipping the event, with almost all those who had excelled in the just-concluded Federation Cup in Kochi making the cut.
Chopra missing the event was on expected lines as his focus this season will be on the Diamond League meetings and the World Championships in September, besides the NC Classic which he is hosting in Bengaluru on May 24.
National record holder shot putter Tajinderpal Singh Toor, who had won gold in the last edition, was omitted from the squad after he finished second in the Federation Cup.
Pole vaulter Dev Kumar Meena will also miss the bus despite rewriting his own national record as his effort was below the Asian Championships qualification mark set by the Athletics Federation of India. But others such as Avinash Sable (men’s 3000m steeplechase), Parul Chaudhary (women’s 3000m steeplechase) and Gulveer Singh (5000m and 10000m) have been included in the squad, even though they did not take part in the Federation Cup as they were training and competing abroad.
Meanwhile, India has named a rejigged men’s 4x400m team for the World Relays to be held in Guangzhou, China from May 10 to 11, with just one runner from the squad that failed to impress in the Paris Olympics making the cut.
Except for Santhosh Kumar Tamilarasan, the other members of the World Relays team entered by the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) are new. The new members are Dharamveer Choudhary, Rince Joseph, Tushar Kanti, Jay Kumar, Mohit Kumar, TS Manu and T K Vishal. The same eight-member men’s 4x400m relay team was on Friday named for the Asian Athletics Championships to be held in Gumi, South Korea from May 27-31.