Athletics
Shot putter Abha Khatua suspiciously missing from India's Paris Olympics list
Khatua's name is absent from the World Athletics list despite her qualification via world rankings for the Paris Olympics.
Abha Khatua's name went missing from India's list of athletes participating in the Paris Olympics athletics events.
In a surprising development, shot putter Abha Khatua's name went missing from the Indian athletics team's list for the 2024 Paris Olympics, published by the World Athletics.
Khatua is currently training in Poland as part of her preparations for the Paris Games.
Khatua, who secured her Paris Olympics spot through the world ranking route, left India for Spala, Poland, on Thursday along with other track and field athletes.
The team is scheduled to arrive in Paris on July 28.
However, the World Athletics' list of participants for the Paris Games, released on Friday night, included only 29 Indian track and field athletes instead of the 30 submitted by the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) through the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), with Khatua's name notably absent.
"It is unlikely that it could be a technical error on the part of World Athletics," an official noted, adding that attempts to contact the international body were unsuccessful.
The AFI officials did not come up with any responses pertaining to the issue.
An AFI official stated that the federation is unaware of the issue with Khatua, while another mentioned that the matter has been brought to the attention of World Athletics.
Confirming the submission, an IOA representative said, "The IOA entered 30 track and field athletes including two reserves, for the Paris Olympics."
Khatua's Olympic journey seemed uncertain until she broke the national record at the Federation Cup in April in Bhubaneswar with a gold-winning throw of 18.41m.
Even then, she remained outside the qualification bracket until her 17.53m gold-winning throw at the National Inter-State Championships, which secured her place in the Paris Games through the world ranking quota.
Initially below the cut in the World Athletics' Road to Paris list, Khatua jumped to 21st in world rankings with 1059 points from the National Inter-State Championships, a category A event, compared to the category F status of the Federation Cup.
Thirty-two athletes are set to compete in the women's shot put event in Paris, with fifteen having automatically qualified by surpassing the 18.80m mark and seventeen, including Khatua, making the cut through world rankings.
