Women's 4x100m relay team, K Gomathi make cut for Asian Athletics Championships; Sudha Singh misses out after trial no-show

Patiala: The women’s 4x100m relay team, anchored by Dutee Chand, made the cut for the upcoming Asian Athletics Championships while most of the runners called for confirmatory trials on Saturday failed to touch the qualifying standards. [caption id=“attachment_3864615” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Sudha Singh. Getty[/caption] The Athletics Federation of India had announced a 51-member team for the continental flagship event to be held in Doha from 21-24 April but as many as 23 were named in the list subject to trials. In the trials held at the NIS on Saturday, only the women’s 100m relay team and K Gomathi (800m) crossed the qualifying standards set by the AFI. The AFI said that its selection committee will take a decision on Monday on who will be selected in the team or left out of it from among those who underwent trials on Saturday. But sources in the federation said very few from among those who did not touch the qualifying standard will be picked. Women’s discus throwers Kamalpreet Kaur and Navjeet Kaur Dhillon may be considered for the Asian Championships despite failing to touch the qualifying standard in Saturday’s trials. India also suffered a jolt as men’s 400m hurdles national record holder Dharun Ayyasamy and Asian Games 800m gold winner Manjit Singh are set to miss the Asian Championships due to injuries while veteran Sudha Singh (women’s 3000m steeplechase) failed to turn up for Saturday’s trials. “Yes, Dharun and Manjit are injured and both of them are more or less out of the Asian Championships. Sudha did not come for the trials today,” an AFI official told PTI. The women’s 100m relay team of Dutee, Hina, Archana Suseendran and K Ranga clocked 44.12 seconds as against the AFI standard of 44.50 seconds. The men’s 4x100m relay team of Harjit Singh, Gurinder Vir Singh, Gurulal Singh and Saifikul Mondal clocked 40.20 seconds in the trials well outside the qualifying time of 39 seconds and they are unlikely to be named in the team. In men’s 5000m trials, Gavit Murali Kumar and Abhishek Paul are also unlikely to get the nod of the selectors after they clocked 14:24.34 and 14:25.93 respectively in Saturday’s trials against the qualifying time of of 13:50.00. In men’s triple jump, Praveen Chithravel could come up with a mere 14.92m, well below the qualifying distance of 16.50m. In women’s individual events, apart from Gomathi, none could touch the qualifying standards in the trials. Gomathi clocked 2:04.12 in 800m, well inside the qualifying standard of 2:05.00. Twinkle Chaudhary missed out by finishing with 2:09.44. In 400m hurdles trials, M Arpita clocked 58.05 seconds as against the qualifying time of 57.70 seconds. In 3000m steeplechase, Parul Chaudhary is unlikely to make it to the team after clocking 9:56.70 in Saturday’s trial while the qualifying time is 9:50.00. The same is in the case of Sharmila Kumari in women’s javelin throw as she could only come up with an effort of 55.16m as against the qualifying distance of 58m. In women’s discus throw confirmatory trials, Navjeet Kaur Dhillon (56.32m) and Kamalpreet Kaur (56.03m) could not touch the qualifying distance of 58m. Kamalpreet has a season’s best of 60.25m while Navjeet has 56.36m.