Neeraj Chopra, Hima Das among seven Indians selected for IAAF Continental Cup

Seven top Indian athletes including star Javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra and sprinter Hima Das have been selected by the Asian Athletics Association (AAA) to represent Asia-pacific Team in the prestigious International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) Continental Cup to be held in Ostrava, Czech Republic on September 8-9.

The competition played among the season’s top rankers from different regional associations will also have three other teams —Africa, America and Europe.

In accordance with the current IAAF rankings, Neeraj (javelin throw), Muhammed Anas (400m), Jinson Johnson (800m) and Arpinder Singh (triple jump) will represent the Asian-Pacific in the men’s category, while Hima Das (400m), P.U. Chitra (1500m) and Sudha Singh (3000m Steeplechase) will compete in the women’s event.

“The excellent performances of these selected athletes are based on the top lists rankings of IAAF and our statisticians for Asia-Pacific. We are aware that results are rapidly changing in the next few days and if an athlete overtakes the performances of your selected athletes, he or she would be replaced by us. We hope that this will not happen,” said AAA Secretary Maurice R Nicholas to the athletics Federation of India (AFI)

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Meanwhile, Neeraj is at present training in Finland under national javelin coach Uwe Hohn from German, while Anas and Hima along with other athletes shortlisted for the Asian Games are undergoing their preparation in Czech Republic under coach Galina Bukharina.

Other selected athletes Jinson Johnson and Sudha Singh are also in the national camp and currently training in Bhutan ahead of the Asian Games.

Hima Das to miss mixed-team relay at Asian Games

Newly crowned World U-20 women’s champion in the 400m sprint category, Hima Das will skip the mixed-team 4X400m relay at the Asian Games, in order to focus on the individual 200m and 400m events, informed national coach Basant Singh on Saturday.

“There is a clash of event timings and so Hima’s name had to be withdrawn from the mixed-team relay. The gap between the 200m heats and mixed-team relay is short. Hence it will be difficult for one athlete to take part in both,” said Singh.

India are the defending champions in the women’s 4X400m team relay, while Hima is India’s fastest female quarter-mile runner, having clocked a personal best of 51.13 seconds in Guwahati, earlier this month.