JOIN US Asian champion shotputter Inderjeet Singh will lead India’s challenge in the three-leg Asian Athletics Grand Prix Series which begins on June 22 in Bangkok.
The Athletics Federation of India on Friday named a 24-member team which will leave for Thailand on Saturday.
Apart from Inderjeet, who won the Asian gold in Wuhan (China) earlier this month, other leading athletes are quartermiler MR Poovamma, silver winner in the recent continental event and sprinter Srabani Nanda who had won a bronze.
The men’s 4x100M relay squad features both Manikanda Arumugam and Praveen Muthukumaran after a selection gaffe found both of them not making the trip to the Asian meet. The 4x400 relays are not part of the programme.
“I am confident of doing well. My main aim is to cross 20M consistently and then go for better marks,” said Inderjeet.
Anilda Thomas, who had skipped the Federation Cup, is included in the team while Karnataka’s Meghana Shetty has been named part of the 4x100 relay team.
The second and third leg of the series will be on June 25 and June 29 at Pathumthani and Chanthaburi (both in Thailand).
The gold medallist of an individual event will get USD 1500 while the silver and bronze winners will pocket USD 800 and USD 500 respectively.
The team: Men: Arokia Rajiv, V Sajin (400M); Jinson Johnson (800M); Kuppuswamy Premkumar (100M hurdles); Ankit Sharma (long jump); Inderjeet Singh (shot put); Rajinder Singh (javelin throw); Amiya Kumar Malik, Krishna Kumar Rane, Jyothi Sankar Debnath, Praveen Muthu Kumaran, Manikanda Arumugam, Tamilvanan (4x100M relay).
Women: Srabani Nanda (100M); MR Poovamma and Anilda Thomas (400M); M Gomathi (800M); Gayathri Govindaraj (100M hurdles); N V Sheena (triple jump); Navjeet Kaur (discus throw); Srabani Nanda, MG Padmini, Himashree Roy, S Archana, Meghana Shetty (4x100M relay).