The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) announced the team for the upcoming World Athletics Championships to be held in Oregon on Thursday. Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra headlines the 22-member (17 men, 5 women) Indian squad, selected on basis of world ranking and qualification standard set by World Athletics.
The Indian squad will leave first for a short training stint at Chula Vista, USA before heading to the Championships, said AFI chief Adille Sumariwalla. Chopra, who is currently participating in the Diamond League, has previously trained at Chula Vista too.
Discus thrower Seema Punia has chosen to miss the worlds to focus on the Commonwealth Games, which will begin at the end of July. The other notable miss from the squad is long jumper Jeswin Aldrin, who had a season best jump of 8.26m. However, the AFI officials said that he was not chosen despite meeting the qualifying standards because of his inconsistency since and the fact that he didn't finish in the top 5 at the recently concluded Inter-State Championships. Murali Sreeshankar and Muhmeed Anees Yahiya are the two long jumpers picked.
400m runner Aishwarya Mishra, who had been earlier involved in a controversy after officials from the National Anti Doping Agency (NADA) couldn't locate her in May, prior to the athletics squad flying to Turkey for a competition and training trip, has been included in the squad. She had met the qualification standards for the Worlds at the Federation Cup in April. Sumariwalla said her participation at the Worlds will be subject to a trial, conducted with electronic timing and in the presence of NADA.
The full squad:
Women's
Dhanalakshmi Sekar (200m)
Aishwarya Mishra (400m)
Parul Choudhary (3000m Steeplchase)
Annu Rani (javelin)
Priyanka Goswamy (20km walk)
Men's
Jabir Madari (400m hurdles)
Avinash Sable (3000m SC)
Tejinder Singh Toor (shot put)
Neeraj Chopra, Rohit Yadav (javelin)
M. Sreeshankar, Muhammed Anees (long jump)
Abdulla Aboobacker, Praveen Chitravel, Eldhose Paul (triple jump)
Sandeep Kumar (10km walk)
Amoj Jacob (subject to fitness; Arokia Rajiv replacement otherwise), Noah Nirmal Tom, Muhammed Ajmal, Naganathan Pandi, Rajesh Remesh, Muhammed Anas Yahiya (4x400m relay)