New Delhi: Led by star javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra, India on Sunday named a 19-member team for the World Athletics Championships to be held in Tokyo from September 13-21 .
For the first time in the country’s history, India will have four men’s javelin throwers in the showpiece with Sachin Yadav, Yashvir Singh and Rohit Yadav also making the cut, along with two-time Olympic medallist Chopra.
In the last edition also, four Indians had qualified but Rohit was forced to pull out due to an injury.
The Indian team, which has five women, was named after a meeting of the senior selection committee of the Athletics Federation of India (AFI).
India had sent 28 athletes in the last edition in Hungary in 2023 with seven relay racers in the squad. This time, the country did not qualify for any relay event.
Chopra had won the gold in Budapest in 2023 and this time also, no other Indian except him has any real chance to stand on the podium.
Men’s 20km race walker Akshdeep Singh was not named despite qualifying through world ranking as he is not medically fit while heptathlete Nandini Agasara, who also made the cut by virtue of being Asian champion, is yet to fully recover from his elbow injury, as reported by PTI earlier.
Star 3000m steeplechaser Avinash Sable qualified by breaching the automatic qualification mark but will miss the showpiece as he underwent an ACL surgery in July.
“Sable, Akshdeep and Nandini are not in the team as they are not medically fit,” AFI spokesperson Adille Sumariwalla said at a virtual media interaction.
The 27-year-old Chopra qualified for the World Championships as wild card entrant by virtue of being the defending champion, which itself paved the way for another three Indians
joining him.