Even as Paris-bound shot putter Abha Khatua currently trains in Poland ahead of the 2024 Summer Games, her name is mysteriously missing from the Indian athletics team's list of Olympic participants published by World Athletics. (More Sports News)
Khatua had sealed an Olympics quota through the world ranking route, and left the nation for Spala in Poland on Thursday (July 11), along with other track and field athletes. From there, the athletes will reach Paris on July 28.
Surprisingly, the list of participants for the Paris Games published by World Athletics on Friday night had 29 Indian track and field athletes, instead of the 30 names entered by Athletics Federation of India (AFI) through the Indian Olympic Association (IOA). Khatua's name is the one missing.
It is unclear whether this is a technical error on the part of World Athletics. PTI spoke to a couple of AFI officials, one of whom said the national federation was not aware of any issues with Khatua. The other official said the AFI has brought the matter to World Athletics' notice.
The IOA, meanwhile, confirmed that it had entered 30 track and field athletes -- including two reserves -- for the Paris Olympics.
Khatua was not in reckoning for an Olympics berth until she broke the national record at the Federation Cup in April in Bhubaneswar, with a throw of 18.41m.
Post that too, however, she was outside the qualification bracket before her gold-winning throw of 17.53m at the National Inter-State Championships. That effort took her to the Paris Olympic Games 2024 through the world ranking quota.
The 29-year-old from West Bengal, who was below the cut earlier in the Road to Paris list of World Athletics, jumped to the 21st spot in world rankings with 1059 points from the National Inter-State Championships, which was a category A event unlike the category F status of the Federation Cup.
In all, 32 athletes will compete in the women's shot put event in Paris. Fifteen of them took the automatic qualification route by breaching the 18.80m mark, while 17 made the cut through world rankings.
(With PTI inputs)
