The 14th National Youth (U-18) Athletics Championships will be held here from April 23 and see participation of 583 athletes from 26 states and Union Territories.
The athletes (boys and girls) will take part in 20 disciplines each during the three-day event which will be held at the GMC Balayogi Athletics stadium, Sports Authority of Telangana Chairman A Venkateshwar Reddy told reporters.
The National Youth Athletics Championships assumes importance as the Indian teams to participate in the Asian Youth Championships in May in Bangkok and the World Youth Championships in Nairobi in July will be selected on the basis of their performances in this event, he said.
Haryana's shot putter Dipender Dabas, who will be the top contender to win a gold in the Asian Youth Meet in Bangkok next month, besides defending champions of National Youth Athletics Championships 2016 Gurjeet Singh (in boy's high jump) from Haryana, Nivya Antony (girl's pole vault) from Kerala and M Karuniya (girl's discus throw) from Tamil Nadu are among the athletes taking part, Telangana Athletics Association General Secretary K Ranga Rao said.
"On the request of Athletics Federation of India, the Director Anti-Doping Agency will be deputing his squad for this event to collect urine samples of the participants on all the three days to avoid misuse of banned substances by the participants," Rao said.
Telangana Minister for Sports T Padma Rao Goud will inaugurate the meet which will be attended by state Secretary (Sports) B Venkatesham, Athletics Federation of India Secretary C K Valson, among other dignitaries.
The Athletics Federation of India is deputing technical delegates and six key officials for the conduct of the events and will be assisted by the local qualified officials.
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