Ankit included in Asian Athletics team, Dutee in for a chance

New Delhi: Long jumper Ankit Sharma has been included in the Indian team for next month's Asian Athletics Championships in China after he "apologised" to the national federation for not informing it before shifting his base from NIS Patiala to SAI Center at Thiruvananthapuram. 

Ankit, a medal contender for the June 3-7 continental showpiece in Wuhan, was not included in the Indian team announced on May 14 despite attaining qualifying standards as the AFI was not happy that he left the national camp to train at Thiruvananthapuram on his own.

"He (Ankit) left the national camp at NIS Patiala without informing us. How can athletes pick and choose their training base, it will be a chaos if they do this. But he (Ankit) has written an apology letter to us and we have accepted that and decided to include him in the team. He said he will not do this in future," an official in the AFI told PTI.

Ankit's inclusion will mean that India will field two athletes in the men's long jump event, the other being national record holder Kumaraval Prem Kumar, who is now training in the United States and had two jumps above 8m mark recently. The 22-year-old Ankit had won a gold in the Federation Cup in Mangalore earlier this month -- which served as the qualifying event for the Asian Championships -- with a jump of 7.99m while representing Haryana. He had a 8m-plus jump while winning a gold in the National Games in Kerala in February. 

Besides Prem Kumar and Ankit, four Chinese, one Japanese and one Saudi Arabian have made 8m-plus jumps this season. Meanwhile, promising sprinter Dutee Chand can still make it to the Indian team if she does well in the women's 4x100m relay trials on May 27 though she failed to make the cut in individual events. 

Dutee was given permission to take part in Wuhan during the pendency of her appeal against world athletics body IAAF's hyperandrogenism policy at the Court of Arbitration for Sports in Lausanne, Switzerland. But a below-par show at the Federation Cup at Mangalore meant that she was not be included in the Indian team in individual events of 100m and 200m.

It is learnt that Dutee has been called to take part in the May 27 trials for women's 4x100m relay race in Bangalore and she can be selected if she does well there.
"Dutee will run the 4x100m trials in Bangalore on May 27. She missed out selection in her individual events but she can make it to the relay team," the source said. 

Dutee finished second behind her Orissa team-mate Srabani Nanda in both women's 100m and 200m finals. She clocked 11.86 secs and 24.52 secs in the two races, both below AFI's qualifying standards of 11.67 secs and 23.81 secs set for the Asian Championships. Nanda has been named in the Asian Championships team for both 100m and 200m. Dutee has a personal best of 11.62 secs and 23.57 secs in 100m and 200m respectively.

"The physical and mental exertion while running around and actual personal presence at the CAS hearing in Switzerland interrupted my training and so I could not do well in the Federation Cup. But I am now 100 per cent fit for the relay trials on May 27. Me and my coach (N Ramesh) are leaving for Bangalore tonight," she said from Hyderabad where she has been training at the P Gopichand Academy.