Picture Credit: Twitter
The Indian mixed relay team, which consists of Muhammed Anas, Himanshi Malik, Aishwarya Mishra, and Amoj Jacob, might miss out on the World Athletics Championship in Budapest, Hungary after failing to improve on 17th place ranking. The team had gone to the Sri Lankan National Championships, and even won, but were unable to improve their time and thus climb ahead of their 17th place ranking. With the deadline passed on Sunday night, the Athletics Championship will send invites to qualifying teams, and India does not qualify among the top 16 teams. There is still a bleak possibility that the Indian team might make it to the tournament if any of the top 16 teams decline the offer.
The Indian contingent raced at the Sri Lanka National to try and improve on their season best time of 3:14.7 timings but were unable to do so, finishing with a time of 3:17.3. This meant that the relay team did not climb above 17th in time for the invitations to be sent out. The final list of qualified athletes is to be released by the WA on August 2. For relay races, the top eight from the World Championships in the United States will receive an invite automatically, while the remaining eight will be selected as per their world rankings. The rankings are based on teams’ best times achieved in a season.
An Indian coach for the relay team said, “Yes, our mixed 4x400m relay team is at 17th spot in the Road to Budapest list (prepared by WA) out of which 16 to be qualified, we may miss unless a team in the top 16 pulls out.”
The women’s relay team also does not qualify for the World Championships, though the men’s team will be competing in Hungary after achieving rank 14.
Neer aj Chopra, Murali Shreeshankar and Avinash Sable to headline Indian contingent in Hungary
Olympic gold medallist in javelin Neeraj Chopra will be headlining the Indian representation at the World Athletic Championship in Hungary along with long jump star Murali Shreeshankar and steeplechaser Avinash Sable. Chopra qualified as the reigning Diamond League champion while Shreeshankar and Sable qualified through their entry standards. Other notable athletes who qualified through breaching entry standard are Tajinderpal Toor (shot put), Jeswin Aldrin (men’s long jump), and Praveen Chithravel (men’s triple jump). Jyoti Yarraji (women’s 100m hurdles) and Parul Chaudhary (3000m steeplechase) qualify as Asian champions.
