Athletics
Star sprinter Hima Das is set to miss the Tokyo Olympics
India's star sprinter Hima Das, who sustained a hamstring injury on Saturday while running 100m heats is set to miss the Tokyo Olympics as the women's 4x100m of which she was a part earlier clocked 44.15 seconds at the National Inter-State Athletics Championships in Patiala, well outside the targeted time of 43.03 seconds.
India's star sprinter Hima Das, who sustained a hamstring injury on Saturday while running 100m heats is set to miss the Tokyo Olympics as the women's 4x100m of which she was a part earlier clocked 44.15 seconds at the National Inter-State Athletics Championships in Patiala, well outside the targeted time of 43.03 seconds. Hima also tried to compete in the women's 200m final, chasing 22.80 seconds to qualify for Olympics but finished fifth in 25.03 seconds. PD Anjali (Kerala) and Lovepreet Singh (Punjab) were the winners of the women's and men's 200m sprints in 24.01 seconds and 21.04 seconds respectively.
Running with a changed combination after Hima Das pulled out, the Indian women's 4x100m relay quartet of AK Daneshwari, Archana Suseendran, S Dhanalakshmi and Dutee Chand a time of 44.15 seconds which was a meet record but well short of its target (43.03 seconds) that could have earned the team a berth in the Olympic Games.
Besides the 4x400m mixed relay squad, Avinash Sable (men's 3000m Steeplechase), Tajinder Pal Singh Toor (men's shot put), Neeraj Chopra and Shivpal Singh (men's javelin throw), M Sreeshankar (men's long jump), Kamalpreet Kaur (women's discus Throw) and 20km race walkers KT Irfan, Sandeep Kumar and Rahul Rohila (men) and Bhawna Jat and Priyanka Goswami (women) have already qualified for the Olympics.
There is expectation that some others like MP Jabir (men's 400m hurdles), Dutee Chand (women's 100m and 200m), Annu Rani (women's javelin throw) will make it to Olympics on the basis of their world ranking.
Moreover, the men's and women's relay teams, currently ranked 13th and 16th on the Road to Tokyo list, may raise the size of the Indian athletics team.
Tuesday midnight is the deadline of the Olympics qualification period and the World Athletics will publish the list of qualified athletes for the Tokyo Games on Thursday.
The AFI's selection committee will meet on Saturday to pick the Indian team for the Olympics.
With World Athletics responding positively to the Athletics Federation of India request to consider the 3:01.89 clocked in the 4x400m heats on Friday, the men's team's 13th place was restored ahead of Germany, Poland and Czech Republic.
