Avinash Sable Surprise Inclusion In India's Asian Games Athletics Team, Injured Tejas Shirse Also Named
India will be represented by 73 track and field athletes in the upcoming Asian Games in Japan to be led by superstar javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra with a few surprise inclusions.
India will be represented by 73 track and field athletes in the upcoming Asian Games in Japan to be led by superstar javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra with a few surprise inclusions, including that of 3000m steeplechaser Avinash Sable and injured 110m hurdler Tejas Shirse. Sable, who won 3000m steeplechase gold medals in the 2022 Asian Games and 2025 Asian Championships, has competed only once after undergoing surgery last year, and that also in 5000m in Belgium earlier this month. His pet event is 3000m steeplechase in which he also won a silver in the 2022 Commonwealth Games. He was not in the Glasgow CWG squad.
In July last year, the 31-year-old Sable successfully undergone surgery for an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and meniscus injury on his right knee. He sustained the injury while running at the Monaco Diamond League.
Sable also did not compete at the National Inter-State Championships in Bhubaneswar in June which was the final qualifying event for the Asian Games to be held in Aich-Nagoya in Japan from September 19 to October 4.
National 110m record holder Shirse had said earlier in the month that he won't be able to participate in the Asian Games after sustaining a devastating injury of two stress fractures in his left foot while competing at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games.
Running with his left foot heavily strapped, Shirse grimaced through the pain before finishing eighth in the final with a timing of 15.39 seconds, a far cry from the 13.76 seconds that had powered him into the medal race.
Woman javelin thrower Annu Rani's inclusion in the team may also raise a few eyebrows. Annu won the gold in the National Inter-State Championships with a throw of 56.74m but did not breach the Asian Games qualifying mark of 57.62m set by the Athletics Federation of India (AFI).
She won gold in the 2022 Asian Games with 62.92 effort. The bronze medal winner had thrown 61.29m.
But the 33-year-old has been struggling for some time as her best this season has been 56.74m. She has not crossed the 60m mark since August last year though she has a personal best of 63.82m, which is the national record.
Glasgow Commonwealth Games bronze winner javelin thrower Yashvir Singh missed out as India can name only two athletes per event. Chopra and Rohit Yadav, the second farthest thrower among Indians this year, got the nod.
Rohit also won gold in the National Inter-State Championships while Yashvir had finished second.
The Athletics Squad: Karanveer Singh, Damneet Singh, Gurindervir Singh, Murali Sreeshankar, Mohammed Ashfaq, Sawan Barwal, Praveen Chithravel, Neeraj Chopra, Dharamveer Choudhary, Aadarsh Ram, Kartik Jayraj Karkera, Shahnavaz Khan, Animesh Kujur, Kuldeep Kumar, Krishan Kumar, Jay Kumar, Sarvesh Anil Kushare, Dev Meena, Thowfeeq Noushad, Abhishek Pal, Yashas Palaksha, Mohammed Afsal, Rajesh Ramesh, Avinash Sable, Yoonus Shah, Tejaswin Shankar, Tejas Shirse, Gulveer Singh, Santhosh Kumar T, Manu Thekkinalil Saji, Vishal TK, Tajinderpal Singh Toor, Karthik Unnikrishnan, Rohit Yadav, Pranav Pramod Gaurav, Prachi, Tamanna, Seema, Rashdeep Kaur, Priyanka Goswami, Ankita, Annu Rani, Seema, Pooja, Pooja, Manpreet Kaur, Pooja, Ansa Babu, Supriya SB, Unnathi Bolland, Tanya Chaudhary, Parul Chaudhary, Baranica Elangovan, Nithya Gandhe, Gowthami Jayaraman, Krishna Jayasankar Menon, Nandhini Kongan, Anamika KA, Poovamma Raju Machettira, Kumari Saloni Nagar, Srabani Nanda, Neeru Pathak, Anu Raghavan, Abinaya Rajarajan, Vithya Ramraj, Manju Rani, Sneha SS, Sudeshna Shivankar, Shaili Singh, Ancy Sojan, Niharika Vashisht, Anushka Yadav, Jyothi Yarraji.
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