India will be represented by six athletes, including three women, in the World Athletics Championships to be held in Berlin from August 15-23.
Among the three men, Joseph Abraham (400m hurdles) and Babubhai Panocha (20km walk) attained the qualifying norm this year while Surendra Kumar (10,000m) achieved it last year.
Women discus throwers Krishna Poonia and Seema Antil also crossed the qualifying standard this season.
The only surprise in the team was that of heptathlete Susmita Singha Roy who has not been at her best this season after touching the qualifying standard last year.
But Susmita apparently got the selectors' nod since she is considered a good prospect for next year's Commonwealth Games in Delhi.
Star long jumper Anju Bobby George, who represented India in the last edition of the competition in Osaka in 2007, will not be taking part this time as she has not trained much after recovery from the injury sustained during Beijing Olympics.
The Athletics Federation of India ignored several athletes who had achieved qualifying standards but were either not competing this season because of injuries or their recent form has not been upto the mark.
Among them are triple jumper Amarjeet Singh, who had crossed the Berlin 'B' qualifying mark of 16.65m last year, and Vikas Gowda, who touched 64.83m last year (better than Berlin 'A' standard of 64.50m).
Javelin thrower Anil Kumar Singh (who set a national record of 80.72m last year as against Berlin 'B' qualifying mark of 78.0m) has had a best of only 73.47m this year.
Among women, discus thrower Harwant Kaur (61.09m last year as against 58.50m qualifying standard) had a season best of 54.07m, while long distance runner Preeja Sreedharan is injured.
400m runner Mandeep Kaur had a 51.74s in Madurai last year, better than Berlin 'B' standard of 52.30secs, but has managed only 54.99s as her best this year.
The women's 4x400m relay team made the grade last year itself but with almost all the runners are in poor form.
In the last Championships in Osaka also, six athletes took part but only long jumper Anju Bobby George qualified for the final where she finished ninth with a jump of 6.53m.
Joseph Abraham had finished seventh in 400m hurdles semifinal with 49.51secs. Krishna Poonia had finished 10th and Vikas Gowda was ninth in women's and men's discus qualifying round respectively.
Navpreet Singh had finished 11th in shot put while triple jumper Renjith Maheswary was 13th, both in qualifying round.
Team:
Men: Surendra Kumar Singh (10,000m), Joseph Abraham (400m hurdles) and Babubhai Panocha (20km walk).
Women: Krishna Poonia (discus), Seema Antil (discus) and Susmita Singha Roy (heptathlon).
