Indian team to leave for World Athletics C`ship tomorrow

New Delhi: A 15-member Indian athletics team will leave on Tuesday for Moscow to participate in the World Championships from August 10-18 with hopes of a better performance than the last edition of the event.

Discus thrower Vikas Gowda and long jumper Mayookha Johny had qualified for the final round in last edition in 2011 in Daegu, Japan, finishing seventh and ninth respectively. This time also, Gowda is in the Indian team while Mayookha could not qualify. Gowda is expected to qualify for final round in Moscow also but how high he will finish is difficult to predict. He finished fourth in Paris leg of the prestigious IAAF Diamond League meetings just after winning gold in the Asian Athletics Championships in Pune last month but came a disappointing eighth in the London leg on July 27. Indian women`s 4x400m relay team is back in the World Championships, having competed five times earlier in the mega-event but is unlikely to make it to the final round of eight teams this time. The timing of the last team which had qualified for the final round in 2011 was 3:26.01s and the Indian quartet had clocked 3:32.26s while winning gold in the Pune Asian Championships. "Even qualification is an achievement in itself. But it is difficult to say whether we can qualify for the final round or not but the girls will give their best," women`s 4x400m relay coach Nagapuri Ramesh said. PTI