NEW DELHI:
Jyothi Yarraji
is poised to become the first
Indian 100m hurdler
to participate in the Olympics, while shot putter Abha Khatua secured an unexpected spot through world rankings for the upcoming
Paris Games
.
The
World Athletics
released the list of athletes who qualified directly by surpassing the entry standard and those who made it through the world ranking quota on Tuesday.
However, the
Athletics Federation of India
(
AFI
) will have the final say in selecting the athletes who qualified via the world ranking quota.
National Olympic Committees have until midnight on July 4 to inform WA if they wish to decline a quota. From July 4-6, WA will redistribute the declined quota places to the next highest-ranked athlete in the same event. The final list will be released on July 7.
Yarraji clocked 12.78 seconds in a Finland event in May, falling just one-hundredth of a second short of the automatic qualification time of 12.77 seconds.
She is ranked 34th in the world ranking quota list, with 40 athletes set to compete in the event in Paris. Khatua, who broke the national record (18.41m) at the Federation Cup, initially fell outside the world ranking quota place.
However, her gold-winning performance (17.63m) at the National Inter-State Championships, which concluded on Sunday, propelled her to the 23rd spot, with 32 athletes set to compete in the Olympics.
High jumper Sarvesh Anil Kushare, who clinched gold at the National Inter-State Championships with a jump of 2.25m, also made the cut. Javelin thrower DP Manu qualified but is likely to miss the Paris Games following a recent doping violation. Olympic champion
Neeraj Chopra
and Kishore Jena have already secured direct qualification.
Long jumper Jeswin Aldrin narrowly missed the world ranking quota by one place, but he may still qualify if the AFI selects him.
The World Athletics list included another Indian long jumper, M Sreeshankar, who had achieved automatic qualification but has been ruled out due to an injury. Four men's 20km race walkers had surpassed the automatic qualification mark, and the AFI will have to choose three of them.
A country can send only three athletes in an event.
Indian athletes who made Paris Olympics cut either by breaching qualification standard or through world ranking quota are:
Kiran Pahal (women's 400m, direct), Parul Chaudhary (women's 3000m steeplechase, direct; and 5000m, world ranking), Jyothi Yarraji (women's 100m hurdles, WR), Abha Khatua (women's shot put; WR), Annu Rani (women's javelin throw, WR), Priyanka Goswami (women's 20km race walk; direct), women's 4x400m relay (qualified during assigned event), Avinash Sable (men's 3000m steeplechase; direct), Sarvesh Anil Kushare (men's high jump, WR), Abdulla Aboobacker and Praveen Chithavel (both men's triple jump, WR), Tajinderpal Singh Toor (men's shot put, WR), Neeraj Chopa and Kishore Jena (men's javelin throw, direct), Akshdeep Singh, Ram Baboo, Vikash Singh and Paramjeet Singh Bisht (all men's 20km race walk, direct; three out of the four to be picked), men's 4x400m relay (qualified during assigned event), marathon race walk mixed relay (from among qualified race walkers).
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