CWG: India likely to field both relay squads

NEWDELHI: Uttar Pradesh javelin thrower Vipin Kasana is among five athletes who narrowly missed out on qualifying who are in the tentative athletics squad for the Commonwealth Games starting on April 4.

According to an Athletics Federation of India (AFI) official, some close to the qualifying norm were given grace points and selected. The federation has a quota of 37 athletes. Overall, 13 athletes, including four in race walking events, have achieved CWG qualification. AFI will also consider the men and women’s 4x400m relay teams. The list has gone to the sports ministry for approval.

Vipin Kasana won silver behind Neeraj Chopra with a throw of 80.04m in the Indian Grand Prix meet in Patiala that preceded this week’s Federation Cup. He narrowly missed the CWG norm of 81.80m. He withdrew from the Federation Cup due to back pain.

Kasana’s selection though has raised a question about his lack of consistency in international meets. In the 2014 Glasgow CWG, he qualified for the medal round with a throw of 71.95m, but missed the final for unknown reasons. Ravinder Singh Khaira too missed the medal round after qualifying (72.18m).

“We have given chance to those athletes who were very close to the CWG norms,” said an AFI official, who requested anonymity as the team is not official.

The AFI selection panel headed by former great Gurbachan Singh Randhawa picked 37 for the Gold Coast Games.

Long jumper Sreeshankar M, whose winning jump of 7.99m at the Federation Cup was a centimetre short of the norm has been selected. In triple jumper, Federation Cup bronze medallist D Arivuselvam of Tamil Nadu, with a best jump of 16.49m, got

Lazio Borussia Dortmund Atletico

CSKA Sporting Lisbon

Dynamo Kiev Salzburg

Lokomotiv Lyon

Viktoria Plzen

the nod with winner Arpinder Singh (16.61m) as silver medallist Renjit Maheswary (16.51m) suffered a knee injury. Tentative squad: Men Dharun Ayyasamy (400m hurdles), Sreeshankar M (long jump), Arpinder Singh, D Arvuselvam (triple jump), Tejinder Pal Singh Toor (shot put), Neeraj Chopra, Vipin Kasana (javelin), Tejaswin Shankar, Siddharth Yadav (high jump), KT Irfan, Manish Singh Rawat (race walking).

Hima Das (400m), L Suriya (5,000m, 10,000m), Seema Punia, Navjeet Kaur Dhillon (discus), Nayana James, Neena Pinto (long jump), Purnima Hembram (heptathlon), Soumya B, Khushbir Kaur (race walking).