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Abha Khatua’s name is not in Indian athletics team’s list for the Paris Olympics, even as she currently trains in Poland ahead of the Games. read more
 "Shot putter Abha Khatua's name suspiciously missing from World Athletics' list")
Abha Khatua qualified for the Paris Olympics via the world rankings route. Image: X/AFIIndia
Shot putter Abha Khatua’s name was suspiciously missing from the Indian athletics team’s list of Olympic participants published by World Athletics, even as she travelled to Poland ahead of the Paris Games.
Khatua, who qualified for the Olympics through world ranking route, left the country for Spala in Poland on Thursday, along with other athletes. The track and field athletes will reach Paris on July 28.
The World Athletics’ list of participants for the Paris Games published on Friday night had only 29 Indian track and field athletes, instead of 30 names entered by Athletics Federation of India (AFI) through the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), with Abha’s name missing.
It is unlikely that it could be a technical error, though officials of the international body could not be contacted, as per news agency PTI.
Athletics Federation of India (AFI) officials were not forthcoming in their response. One official said the AFI was not aware of any issues. AFI’s social media account has not posted any clarification in the regard either.
Another official said the AFI has brought the matter to the notice of World Athletics.
The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) confirmed that it had entered 30 track and field athletes — including two reserves — for the Paris Olympics.
Khatua was not initially in contention to make the Olympics till she broke the national record at the Federation Cup in April in Bhubaneswar with a gold winning throw of 18.41m.
Even after that, she was outside the qualification bracket before her gold winning throw of 17.53m — a mediocre effort by any standard — at the National Inter-State Championships that took her to the Paris Games through world ranking quota.
Abha, who was well below the cut initially in the Road to Paris list of World Athletics, jumped to 21st in world rankings with 1059 points from the National Inter-State Championships, which was a category A event unlike the category F status of the Federation Cup.
Thirty-two athletes will compete in the women’s shot put event in Paris. Fifteen took the automatic qualification route by breaching the 18.80m mark while 17 made the cut through world rankings.
India’s athletics contingent as per World Athletics: Jeswin Aldrin (long jump), Ankita (5000m), Paramjeet Singh Bisht (20km race walk), Parul Chaudhary (3000m steeplechase, 5000m), Praveen Chithravel (triple jump), Neeraj Chopra (javelin throw), Jyothika Sri Dandi (4x400m relay), Amoj Jacob (4x400m relay), Kishore Jena (javelin throw), Kiran Pahal (4x400m relay, 400m), Mijo Chacko Kurian (4x400m relay), Sarvesh Anil Kushare (high jump), Poovamma Raju Machettira (4x400m relay), Abdulla Aboobacker (triple jump), Suraj Panwar (marathon race walk mixed relay), Prachi (4x400m relay), Priyanka (20km race walk, marathon race walk mixed relay), Rajesh Ramesh (4x400m relay), Vithya Ramraj (4x400m), Annu Rani (javelin throw), Avinash Sable (3000m steeplechase), Akshdeep Singh (20km race walk), Vikash Singh (20km race walk), Santhosh Kumar Tamilarasan (4x400m relay), Tajinderpal Singh Toor (shot put), Muhammed Ajmal (4x400m relay), Subha Venkatesan (4x400m relay), Muhammed Anas Yahiya (4x400m relay), Jyothi Yarraji (100m hurdles)
(with inputs from PTI)
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