2 weeks Ago By Anirudh Menon in Kochi
Praveen Chithravel, Shaili Singh and Animesh Kujur headline the 58 strong India squad headed to the Asian Athletics Championship to be held between May 27 - 31 in Gumi, South Korea. The Athletics Federation of India announced the squad via a press conference on Friday, a day after the completion of the four-day Federation Cup in Kochi. Having set stringent qualification standards, the AFI said that most of these athletes had cleared them at the meet.
Sprinters Gurindervir Singh and Manikanta Hoblidar had breached the AFI-set qualifying mark for the 100m before the Fed Cup in the Indian Grand Prix-1 but have not been considered as entries for the 100m in the Asian squad after Gurindervir finished seventh in the Fed Cup (after cramping up) and Manikanta finished third. AFI President Bahadur Singh Sagoo and chief coach Radhakrishnan Nair said that the norms had been clear: performance at the Fed Cup and a top two finish was mandatory to back up earlier performances. The only athletes excused were those performing at an international level consistently such as Avinash Sable and Parul Chaudhary.
Meanwhile, Neeraj Chopra will not be a part of the team since he has international commitments at the time - including the Doha Diamond League and the Neeraj Chopra Classic. India, who lie third in the all-time medal tally of the Asian Athletics Championships (behind China and Japan) will be looking to improve on their tally of 6 gold (27 total) won in the previous edition (2023) in Bangkok, Thailand. The full squad that will travel to Gumi is: Men's team 200m: Animesh Kujur 800m : Anu Kumar, Krishan Kumar 1500m: Younus Shah 3000m Steeplechase : Avinash Sable 5000m : Gulveer Singh, Abhishek Pal 10,000m : Gulveer Singh, Sawan Barwal Triple jump : Praveen Chithravel, Abdulla Aboobacker High jump : Sarvesh Kushare Shot Put : Samardeep Singh Gill Javelin throw : Sachin Yadav, Yashvir Singh Decathlon : Tejaswin Shankar 20km walk : Servin Sebastian, Amit 4x100m: Pranav Pramod, Animesh Kujur, Manikanta Hoblidar, Amlan Borgohain, Tamilarasu, Ragul Kumar, Gurvinder Singh 4*400m: Vishal TK, Jay Kumar, Manu TS, Dharamveer Chaudhary, Rince Joseph, Tushar Kanti, Santosh Kumar, Mohit Kumar Women's team: 200m : Nithya Gandhe 400m : Rupal Chaudhary, Vithya Ramraj 800m : Twinkle Chaudhary, Pooja 1500m: Lili Das, Pooja 3000m Steeplechase : Parul Chaudhary, Ankita 5000m : Sanjivani Baburao, Parul Chaudhary 10000m : Sanjivani Baburao, Seema 100m hurdles : Jyothi Yarraji 400m hurdles : Vithya Ramraj, Anu R Long jump : Shaili Singh, Ancy Sojan Heptathlon : Nandini Agasara 4x100m: Nithya Gandhe, Abhinaya Rajarajan, Sneha S, Srabani Nanda, Daneshwari, V Sudeeksha 4x400m : Rupal, Sneha K, Subha Venkatesan, Jisna Mathew, Kunja Rajitha, Sandramol Sabu.
