Neeraj Chopra will lead Indian team in the World Athletics Championship, 3 players missed despite qualification

New Delhi. Neeraj Chopra, who missed the title in the Diamond League, will lead the Indian team at the World Athletics Championships. The Vishwas Championship will be held in Tokyo from 13 to 21 September. India announced the 19 -member team on Sunday. For the first time in the history of the country, four men’s spear throw players will participate in this championship. In addition to two -time Olympic medalists Neeraj, Sachin Yadav, Yashveer Singh and Rohit Yadav are also included.

In the last tournament, four Indians had qualified but Rohit was out due to injury. Five women selected after the meeting of the Senior Selection Committee of the Indian Athletics Federation (AFI) are also included. India sent 28 athletes in the last tournament held in Hungary in 2023, including seven relay runners. This time the country could not qualify for any relay competition. Chopra won a gold medal in Budapest in 2023 and this time also any other Indian other than him has no real chance to win a medal.

The name of Akshadeep Singh, a athlete of 20 km of men’s 20 km walk, is not included despite qualifying through the world rankings as he is not medically fit. Heptathlite Nandini Agasara, who has been cut due to being an Asian champion, has not fully recovered from the elbow injury as PTI had previously reported. Three thousand meter steeplechase star player Avinash Sabale qualified by gaining automatic eligibility limit but due to ACL surgery in July, he will not be able to participate in this competition.

AFI spokesperson Adil Sumrivala said in a virtual media conversation, “Saable, Akshdeep and Nandini are not in the team as they are not medically fit.” Being a defending champion, 27 -year -old Chopra qualified for the World Championship with a wild card, clearing the way for three other Indians to join him. Any country is allowed to include maximum three participants in competition but if a player makes a place in the competition through wild card, then this number can be four.

Chopra also crossed the 85.50 meter qualifying level. While the other three Indians got the cut through the world rankings. Rohit, who failed to make it to the group of initial 36 athletes competing in Tokyo, received an invitation from world athletics when contestants above in the world rankings withdrew their names. Any athlete can automatically qualify for the World Championship to achieve qualification level. The remaining places are given through the world ranking quota so that the pre-determined admission numbers for each competition can be completed by world athletics.

The member countries then informed the global institution to withdraw the names of their athletes and thus the vacant places were filled by athletes living in the next place in the world rankings.

Indian Team:

Male: Neeraj Chopra, Sachin Yadav, Yashveer Singh and Rohit Yadav (Murli throw), Murali Srishankar (male long jump), Gulveer Singh (male 5,000 meters and 10,000 meters), Praveen Chitravel and Abdullah Abubakar (Purush Trikud), Sarvesh Anil Kushare (Male high jump), Animesh Kujur (Male 200 meters), Sarvin Sabastian (Purusha Sir’s hurdles) Kimi walk), Ram Babu and Sandeep Kumar (male 35 km walk).

Women: Parul Chaudhary and Ankita Dhyani (3000 meters of women), Annu Rani (women’s spear throw), Priyanka Goswami (35 km of women’s walk), Pooja (800 meters and 1500 meters of women).