Eighteen Indian track and field athletes will leave the country for Scotland tomorrow for the 20th Commonwealth Games to be held in Glasgow from July 23 to August 3.
The first batch of 18 athletes will check in for the Games Village at Glasgow and some of them will take part in the competitions at nearby places in the United Kingdom.
"We want to acclimatise with the conditions at Glasgow and so we are leaving early though the track and field events begin on July 27," chief coach Bahadur Singh said at a media interaction today.
"Some of the athletes will take part in competitions in Birmingham (on July 18 and 19) which is not very far off from Glasgow. We are looking for some other competitions also. We will get at least 12 days to get acclimatise with the conditions," he said.
The Hampden Park at Glasgow, where the track and field events of the Commonwealth Games will be held, hosted a IAAF Diamond League Meeting on Friday and yesterday at 21 degrees Celsius while most of the Indian track and field athletes trained at NIS Patiala at much higher temperatures.
Asked why the Athletics Federation of India was yet to come with a full list of participants for the Games, Bahadur said, "We want all the top athletes to be fit and give their best in the Commonwealth Games."
AFI officials said the full list of athletes will be announced tomorrow. The remaining athletes will leave for Glasgow later.
The 18 athletes, who are leaving for Glasgow tomorrow, include 12 quartermilers (seven men and five women), three javelin throwers (two men and one woman), one woman high jumper, one woman discus thrower and one man hammer thrower.
The athletes will be accompanied by coaches Bahadur Singh, Anatoli Varda, Kasinath Naik, Ramesh Nagapuri, Ankush Choudhary Punia.
The Team:
Athletes: Rajiv Arokia, P Kunhu Muhammad, Sachin Roby Jose, Lalit Mathur, Jithu Baby, Jibin Sebastian, Ravinder Singh Khaira, Davinder Singh, Vipin Kasana, Narayan Singh Chandrodaya, M R Poovamma, Debashree Mazumdar, Rattandeep Kaur, Anilda Thomas, Ashwini Akkunji, Sahana Kumari, Seema Punia, Annu Rani.
