Neeraj to lead 28-member Indian team in World Athletics Champs

NEW DELHI: Olympic champion javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra will once again headline India’s campaign in the World Athletics Championships beginning on August 19 in Budapest, Hungary, with the country fielding a 28-member team.

Surprisingly, the Sports Ministry announced the team instead of the Athletics Federation of India (AFI), which later said that most of the participating athletes have already reached Hungary to get used to the weather.

Reigning Diamond League champion Chopra is gunning for a gold medal in Budapest after winning a silver in the last edition in Eugene, USA, in 2022. He has won two Diamond League Meetings this season -- in Doha on May 5 and Lausanne on June 30.

The 25-year-old, who had missed three top competitions between the two Diamond League Meetings due to a muscle strain sustained while training, is currently training at Magglingen in Switzerland.

His season’s best is the 88.67m in Doha, the third longest throw this season behind 89.51m of Jakub Vadlajch of Czech Republic and 88.72m of Julian Weber of Germany.

Meanwhile, Asian record holder shot putter Tajinderpal Singh Toor has pulled out of the August 19-27 showpiece as he is recovering from the groin injury he sustained during the Asian Championships in July.

National record holder high jumper Tejaswin Shankar, 800m runner K M Chanda and 20km race walker Priyanka Goswami (also national record holder) have also decided to skip the World Championships as they wanted to focus on Asian Games (September 23 to October 8) in Hangzhou, China.

“Tajinder is recovering from the injury he sustained during Asian Championships, and the others have informed that they would focus on Asian Games rather than World Championships,” a source in the AFI said.

Toor had won shot put gold in Asian Championships in Bangkok on July 14, clearing 20.23m in his second round throw but did not take further part due to groin pain.

He had also missed the 2022 World Championships due to a groin strain he developed just before the event, which also forced him to skip the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

Priyanka has been struggling since breaching the World Championships and 2024 Olympics qualifying mark with a performance of 1:28:50 in February during the Race Walk Nationals. She had clocked 1:40:39 to finish seventh on Saturday at the World University Games in Chengdu China.