First, the long, uncomfortable pause. Then, an exhale of finality. Eventually, the statement. "Mr Shankar didn't ask to be selected, didn't as for an exemption, even though we have been in touch with him," said Athletics Federation of India (AFI) president Adille Sumariwalla, ending whatever minuscule hopes national record holder Tejaswin Shankar might have harboured of competing in his second Commonwealth Games (CWG).
A week back, Shankar had won a high jump gold at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Eugene, USA with an effort of 2.27 metres. By virtue of that jump, the 24-year-old also met the CWG qualifying mark set by AFI. Still, when the AFI top brass got together to announce the team for next month's event, Shankar's name didn't feature in the list of 37 who made the cut. India, in fact, are not sending any athlete in high jump, simply because no one could meet the mark. For context, Sarvesh Anil Kushare who took the high jump gold at the recently-concluded Inter-State meet in Chennai, did so with the best effort of 2.24 metres. The highest he has jumped in his career is 2.26 metres, two and a half years back. This is no slight on Kushare, but possibly a reflection of AFI's rigidity.
Three other athletes chose to skip the Chennai meet because they were competing or training abroad, and Sumariwalla explained the trio had sought, and got the permission to do so. Having met the qualification criterion, they have booked their berths for Birmingham. "Only Neeraj Chopra, Avinash Sable, and Seema Antil Punia, who are training overseas, sought and were granted an exemption from the Inter-State Athletics Championships," Sumariwalla said.
{{/usCountry}}Three other athletes chose to skip the Chennai meet because they were competing or training abroad, and Sumariwalla explained the trio had sought, and got the permission to do so. Having met the qualification criterion, they have booked their berths for Birmingham. "Only Neeraj Chopra, Avinash Sable, and Seema Antil Punia, who are training overseas, sought and were granted an exemption from the Inter-State Athletics Championships," Sumariwalla said.
{{/usCountry}}Shankar finished a creditable sixth in his maiden CWG appearance four years back. Australia's Brandon Starc, who took the gold with a jump of 2.32 metres, has a current season best of 2.24 metres, 0.03 metres shy of Shankar's.
His omission, though, was not the only strange snub of the evening. Long jumper Jeswin Aldrin, who has emerged as a genuine competitor to Murali Sreeshankar, was left out after "a steady dip over the past few competitions." Aldrin, 20, has the longest recorded jump by an Indian, a monster leap of 8.37m that won him a gold at the Federation Cup in April even though the wind-assisted jump was not counted as a national record.
Aldrin went on his maiden international trip next month and finished second (7.82m) at Castiglione International Meeting in Italy. Two days later, he ended a disappointing fifth (7.69m) at Meeting Iberoamericano, Estadio Iberoamericano in Spain, and followed it with two more sub-8m jumps (7.71m and 7.51m) at the Inter-State.
While Muhammed Anees Yahiya has earned his place with a series of steady performances, the number of 8m-plus jumps Aldrin can rustle up when on a roll is truly mouth-watering. At this year's Federation Cup, Aldrin crossed the 8m-mark four times. Add to it the fact that Yahiya's last overseas long jump competition was five years back, and we have yet another questionable omission. Like men's javelin, perhaps the AFI could've selected a three-member long jump team to give the trio a better chance to make the final.
"After the Federation Cup, he jumped 7.82m in IG3, 7.69m in IG4, and 7.51m at Inter-State. So, we thought it was best to leave him out," added Sumariwalla, mixing up the European competitions with Indian GPs. Aldrin has, in fact, participated only in IG 1 in March, and took home a gold with a jump of 8.20m. One can only hope that Sumariwalla's slip was inadvertent and not a sign of the selection process itself.
Headlined by the Tokyo Olympics gold medallist Neeraj Chopra, the squad, Sumariwalla said, was good enough to overhaul last edition's medal tally."The standard of competition in athletics in CWG is usually very high, but we have selected a high-quality squad. We set the selection criterion quite tough, and we believe this squad has the potential to win more medals than what we won last time," he said. India's 26-member athletics contingent to Games' previous edition in Gold Coast four years back managed just three medals, including a javelin gold from Chopra.