Commonwealth Games gold medallist discus thrower Vikas Gowda will spearhead the Indian challenge in the Asian Athletics Championships to be held in Wuhan, China from June 3-7 while his female counterpart Seema Punia has been left out from the team.
Athletics Federation of India today named 29 athletes (14 men and 15 women) which will be increased later after trials are conducted in two individual events and four relay races.
Gowda, who will defend his title he had won in Pune in the last edition in 2013, has been named in the team but Seema Punia, who won a gold in 2014 Asian Games in Incheon and a silver in 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, has been left out as she is yet to achieve full fitness.
Triple jumper Arpinder Singh, who won a bronze in Glasgow, missed the cut while shot putter Inderjeet Singh, who has already qualified for 2016 Rio Olympics, M R Poovamma (women's 400m), Tintu Luka (women's 800m) and Lalita Babar (women's 3000m steeplechase) have been included.
Javelin thrower Annu Rani, who won a bronze in Incheon, and national record holder pole vaulter V Surekha were included in the team subject to a fitness trial to be held on May 27 in Patiala and New Delhi respectively.
Trial races for men's 4x400m relay (Patiala), men's 4x100m relay (Bangalore), women's 4x400m relay (Bangalore) and women's 4x100m relay (Trivandrum) will be held on May 27.
The AFI Selection Committee also gave their nod to young woman discus thrower Navjeet Kaur Dhillon, who became only the second Indian to win a medal at the IAAF World Junior Championships held at Eugene (USA) last year.
The selectors had set the fourth place performance at the previous Asian Championships as qualification standard for selection of the team on basis of performance at the recently-concluded Federation Cup at Mangalore.
Promising sprinter Dutee Chand, who was allowed to take part in the Wuhan Asian Championships in an interim order while her appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland against the IAAF's Hyperandrogenism policy is pending, missed the cut after a below-par show in Mangalore.
