17 Indian athletes for Afro-Asian Games

India will send a 17-member team to represent Asia in the second Afro-Asian Games, to be held in Algiers from July 28 to August 6.

The list includes names such as Anju Bobby George, Krishna Punia, Pinki Pramanik and Navpreet Singh.

According to the Olympic Council of Asia norms, performances at the 2006 Doha Asian Games was the criterion for selection, with the first four finishers in a given discipline booking spots for Algeria.

As the dates for the Games are coinciding with those of the Asian Athletics Championships that are to be held at a still undecided venue, the latter competition will be held either just before or after the Afro-Asian Games, an Athletics Federation of India official said.

Following are the selected Indian athletes:

Men: Navpreet Singh (Shot Put), Renjith Maheswary (Triple Jump), Hari Shankar Roy (High Jump), Aboo Backer (4x400m), Joseph Abraham (4x400m), Bhupinder Singh (4x400m) and K M Binu (4x400m).

Women: Sinimol Paulose (1500m), Manjeet Kaur (400m, 4x400m), Pinki Pramanik (400m, 4x400m), O P Jaisha (5000m), Krishna Punia (Discus Throw), Anju Bobby George (Long Jump), Soma Biswas (Heptathlon), J J Shobha (Heptathlon), Satti Geetha (4x400m) and Chitra Soman (4x400m).