A 22-member Indian athletics team, comprising nine girls and 13 boys, left here for Doha on Wednesday to take part in the first-ever Asian Youth Championships to be held from May 8 to 11.
The team members include upcoming talents like Beant Singh (800 metres), Jisna Mathew (200m, 400m) -- a trainee of the legendary P.T. Usha, high jumper Tejaswin Shankar, and hammer throwers Abhishek Drall and Ashish Jakhar who shot into the limelight at the national level in 2014.
The competition will witness more than 400 athletes from more than 40 countries along with 170 coaches, support and medical staff.
The Indian team was selected on the basis of performance at the National Youth Championships held at Goa in April which was followed by a week-long training camp at Sonepat. The team has a packed calendar this year with the World Youth Championships and the Commonwealth Youth Games slated to be held later this year.
"The youth programme is an integral and key component of AFI's overall training programme to produce elite athletes who can excel at the Olympics and also popularise athletics amongst the masses," Athletics Federation of India (AFI) president Adille Sumariwalla said while extending his best wishes for the Indian contingent.
The team --
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Girls: Aleesha Panachikkal Raju, Anumol Thampi (3,000m), Durga Pramod Deore (1,500m), Jisna Mathew (200m & 400m), Sayana Prabhakaran Omana (400m H), Seema (discus throw), Tiasha Samadder (400m H), Laimwn Narzary (high jump), Sonal Goyal (shot put & discus throw).
Boys: Abhishek Drall (javelin throw), Ashish Bhalothia (shot put), Ashish Jakhar (hammer throw), Beant Singh (800m), Chandan Bauri (200m & 400m), Kishan Narshi Tadvi (3,000m), Meraj Ali (hammer throw), Mohd. Hadeesh (javelin throw), Nuzrat (100m), Sonu Kumar (long and triple jump), Tejaswin Shankar (high jump), Rajesh Ramasamy (decathlon) and Chirag (200m).
Chief coach: Wazir Singh.
Coaches: Jaipal Singh and Renu (Bala) Kohli.