No sprint relay team for Asian championship

The Indian men's sprint relay team's preparation for the World Athletics Championships, beginning August 27 at Daegu, South Korea, hasn't begun in right earnest.

The Indian men's sprint relay team's preparation for the World Athletics Championships, beginning August 27 at Daegu, South Korea, hasn't begun in right earnest.

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An astounding performance of 38.89s that gave the men's 4x100m relay squad bronze at the CWG, and a passage to the global meet for the first time, seems to have been ignored by the Athletics Federation of India.

Rather than gearing up for the world meet, the national team is skipping key competitions in the buildup months for reasons best known to AFI.

Though the AFI is sending a 15-member squad for the Asian Grand Prix series, beginning May 22 in the Chinese city of Jiaxing, the men's relay squad has not been included. Besides hosts China, Thailand, Korea, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Iran are fielding their relay teams. AFI president, ML Jadam, said he needed time to confirm the news.

Team: Men: Shameer Mon, Nasee-ma Mazile (100m), Kunhu Md Puthanpurkka (400m), Ghamanda Ram, Sajesh Joseph (800m), Hari Shankar Roy, C Jithin Thomas (high jump), Maha Singh, Shamsher Singh (long jump), Aprinder Singh (triple jump), Vikas Poonia (discus); Women: Debashree Majumdar (400m), Mayookha Johny (triple jump), Seema Antil (discus) and Suman Devi (javelin).