National record holder K T Irfan and Khushbir Kaur will spearhead the Indian challenge at the IAAF World Race Walking Cup, to be held in Taicang, China on May 3-4.
Out of 12 Indian athletes, who had initially qualified for the prestigious event, only 10 members have been cleared to participate at the tournament by the Sports Ministry.
Five have made the cut in men's 20km race walk event, while four qualified in men's 50km competition. Irfan, Gurmeet Singh, Devender Singh, K Ganapathi and Basant Bahadur Rana qualified in men's 20km race walk event.
In men's 50km race walk, those who made the cut are Sandeep Kumar, Maniram Patel, Manish Singh and Surinder Singh.
Unfortunately, Babubhai Panucha, who was in the initial 50m race walk squad, has been left out.
Another one to miss out on the flight to China is women's 20km race walker Rani Yadav.
Khushbir will be the only Indian woman to be representing the country in the 20km race walk category.
The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) announced the Indian walking team for the Cup, which is the most important event for race walkers this year and most of the world's top stars are expected to be make their way to China.
The selection committee headed by the legendary hurdler and former Asian Games gold-medallist Gurbachan Singh selected the team for the event.
"Indian walkers are fast emerging as a force to reckon with, and the AFI is focused on developing the Indian Walking Team for the 2016 Olympics. We are confident that if given enough support from the government and the private sector, walking could produce one of the first medals in athletics for India in the Olympics," AFI President and former Olympian Adille J Sumariwalla said.
India is sending one of the largest contingent to the event. Hosts China will have 27 competitors, followed by 22 from Spain, 21 each from Russia and Ukraine, 18 from Italy and 14 each from United States and Mexico and 13 from Portugal.
