Second-string Indian
team for ATF meet

Exuding confidence, a 42-member second-string Indian athletics team, comprising 26 men and 16 women, left Chennai for Colombo on Wednesday to compete in the 14th Asian Track and Field championships, from August 9 to 13, with the hope of returning with at least ten medals.

The squad had a pleasant surprise, with former ace woman athlete Shiny Abraham turning up to pep the confidence.

Chennai Joint Commissioner of Police C Sylendra Babu accompanied the squad as manager, along with AAFI secretary-general Lalit Bhanot.

With China, Japan and South Korea also fielding second-string squads, as they are preparing for the forthcoming Asian Games in Busan, South Korea, the Indian athletes have a good chance of winning at least a dozen medals.

Women's high jumper Bobby Aloysius and shot putter Navpreet Singh are the only Commonwealth Games athletes in the squad. Aloysious narrowly missed a bronze in the women's high jump, while Navpreet Singh fouled on all his three attempts in the qualifying round of the men's shot put at the Games.

Satbir Singh (400 metres), P S Primesh (800 metres), Sivananda and Gojen Singh (10,000 metres, 5000 metres), Navpreet Singh and Hridayanand (shot put) and Jagdish K Bishnoy (javelin), among the men, and Bobby Aloysius (high jump), Mukthisha (100 metres, 200 metres), Sunita Dahiya (800 metres), Swaranjit Kaur (discus) and Soma Biswas (heptathlon) are the medal hopefuls.