Long jumper Anju Bobby George will lead a strong challenge for India in the third Asian Indoor Athletics Championships starting in Doha on Thursday.

India is fielding a large contingent of 32 athletes, including 15 women, in the three-day championships which will also serve as the qualifying meet for the World Indoor Athletics Championships in Spain next month and the Beijing Olympics.

For Anju, who won the silver medal in the previous edition in Pattaya in 2006, it will be a good build-up for Beijing and she would want to return with home a gold this time.

India will also have triple jumper Renjith Maheswari, who has already booked a ticket to Beijing, besides a host of others who would be looking to make it to the Olympics.

Among top contenders in the championship are Sajeesh Kumar Joseph and Rajeev Ramesan in 800m, Chatholi Hamza and Sajeesh Kumar Joseph in 1500m, Surendra Kumar in 3000m, Hari Shankar Roy in high jump, Shiv Shankar Yadav in long jump, while decathlete P J Vinod will compete in heptathlon.

The women’s contingent will also have top athletes. Besides Anju, others in the fray are last edition gold winner (in 1500m) Sinimol Paulose and Sushma Devi (in 800m and 1500m), Preeja Sreedharan in 3000m and J J Sobha in pentathlon.

Small contingent

India are fielding athletes in 18 events (nine out of 13 for men and 11 out of 13 for women). The Athletics Federation of India sent a small contingent in the last edition and won eight medals, including one gold, finishing eighth. China, Kazakhstan and Japan grabbed the first, second and third spots.

More than 300 athletes from 31 countries will take part in the three-day meet to be held at the state-of-the-art  Aspire Academy.

Team: Men: Aboobacker, V B Bineesh, Vinay Chowdhary, Gurvinder Pal Singh Bhullar, Virinder Kumar Pankaj (4x400 M Relay), Sajeesh Kumar (800m/1500m), Rajeev Ramesan (800m), Chatholi Hamza (1500m), Surendar Singh (3000m), Sandeep Kumar (3000m), Hari Shankar Roy (High Jump), Krishna Kumar Rane (Long Jump), Amarjeet Singh (Triple Jump), Satender Singh (Shot Put), Om Prakash Karjhana (Shot Put), P J Vinod (Heptathlon), Ram Niwas (Heptathlon)

Women: Chitra Soman (4x400m Relay), Mandeep Kaur (400m/4X400m Relay), Manjeet Kaur (400m/4X400m Relay), Sini Jose (4X400m Relay), Iyleen Samantha (4X400m Relay/60m), Veerappan Leelavathi (4X400m Relay/60m Hurdles/Pentathlon), Sinimol Paulose (800m/1500m), Sushma Devi (800m/1500m), Preeja Sreedharan (3000m), Kavita Raut (3000m), Sahana Kumari (High Jump), Anju Bobby George (Long Jump), M A Prajusha (Long Jump) Kulwinder Kaur (Triple Jump), J J Sobha (Pentathlon).