Neeraj Chopra to lead India in World Championships; three miss chance due to medical issues despite qualification

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.

A country is allowed to have maximum three participants per event but the number can be four if one athlete makes the grade as wild card entrant.

Chopra also breached the 85.50m direct qualifying mark while the other three Indians made the grade through world ranking.

Rohit, who was not initially in the 36-athlete bracket to compete in Tokyo, got the invite from World Athletics after the withdrawal of competitors above him in the world rankings.

An athlete can automatically qualify for the World Championships by breaching the qualification mark. The remaining slots are handed through world ranking quota so as to complete the required entry numbers per event pre-determined by World Athletics.

Member countries then informed the world body about any withdrawal of their athletes despite making the cut and the vacant slots thus created were filled up by those next in world ranking.

The deadline for qualification for most events was August 24.

The Indian team: Men: Neeraj Chopra, Sachin Yadav, Yashvir Singh and Rohit Yadav (men's javelin), Murali Sreeshankar (men's long jump), Gulveer Singh (men's 5,000m and 10,000m), Praveen Chithravel and Abdulla Aboobacker (men's triple jump), Sarvesh Anil Kushare (men's high jump), Animesh Kujur (men's 200m), Tejas Shirse (men's 110m hurdles), Servin Sebastian (men's 20km race walk), Ram Baboo and Sandeep Kumar (men's 35km race walk).

Women: Parul Chaudhary and Ankita Dhyani (women's 3000m steeplechase), Annu Rani (women's javelin), Priyanka Goswami (women's 35km race walk), Pooja (women's 800m and 1500m).