New Delhi:  The Athletics Federation of India announced the Indian team for the Asian Athletics Championships 2015 to be held at Wuhan (China) from June 3-7, here on Thursday. The Indian team finished sixth in the medal tally with 17 medals in the previous edition held at Pune in 2013.

Since then, some of the medal winners of the previous edition have notched up bigger milestones at the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games. The Indian team for the 2015 Asian Championships will be spearheaded by the reigning CWG Gold Medalist in discus, Vikas Gowda, who landed India’s first Gold Medal in the 2013 edition, quarter-miler MR Poovamma and 800m specialist Tintu Luka who were part of the relay team which created a new Asian Games record in 2014 and also bagged individual Medals, AG Medalist in 3000m steeplechase Lalita Babbar and shot putter Inderjeet Singh.

The Selection Committee also gave their nod to young discus thrower Navjeet Kaur Dhillon, who became only the second Indian athlete to win a medal at the IAAF World Junior Championships held at Eugene (USA) in 2014. It was also decided to hold trials for all the four relay teams – two in men and women each – on May 27. Trials will also be held for two athletes in individual events – 2014 Asian Games Medalist in women’s javelin, Annu Rani, and National record holder in women’s pole vault, V Surekha.

The Selectors had set the 4th place performance at the previous Asian Athletics Championships as qualification guidelines for selection of the team on basis of the athletes’ performance at the recently-concluded Federation Cup National Championships.

On this occasion, AFI President and Olympian Adille J Sumariwalla said, “The 2015 Asian Athletics Championships will be a crucial outing for our athletes as it will decide the Continental  Championships and also act as a lodestar for our preparations for the 2015 World Championships and 2016 Olympics. Though India has a superb track record in Asia in the relays, especially the women 4x400m relay team, where we also created a new Asian Games record, we are in the process of trying different permutation and combinations. The reason for holding trials for the relay events and the two individual events is part of our process to ensure that the selection is done not only fairly but also tactically with an eye on the future.”

WOMEN-INDIVIDUAL EVENTS

Trials will be held to select the Team for the following relay events:

1.      Men 4x400M Relay at Patiala on May 27

2.      Men 4x100M Relay at Bangalore on May 27

3.      Women 4x400M Relay at Bangalore on May 27

4.      Women 4x100M Relay at Trivandrum on May 7

The following individual athletes have been asked for Trials:

1.      Annu Rani – Women’s Javelin in Patiala on May 27

2.      V Surekha – Women’s Pole Vault at New Delhi on May 27