Anil Kumar to lead athletics team

Asian Games discuss throw bronze medallist Anil Kumar will lead a 17-member Indian contingent in the second leg of the Asian Athetics Grand Prix, to be held in Colombo on Sunday.

Keeping its promise to reward athletes for their performance in the first leg of the Grand Prix, which was held in Hyderabad on Wednesday, the Amateur Athletic Federation of India included all the medal-winners at the Hyderabad meet for the Colombo leg, except javelin thrower Ramandeep Singh, who opted out on "personal grounds".

"As announced earlier, we have named the members who won medals in Hyderabad for the Colombo leg of the Grand Prix. Ramandeep Singh, who finished second in the Hyderabad meet, had requested us not to name him as he wants to nurse an injured back," AAFI secretary Lalit Bhanot said.

He said the team, comprising 17 athletes and two coaches, will retain their place for the third and final legs of the Grand Prix, slated to be held at Bangkok on June 5 and Manila on June 9.

 On Anju B George's unavailability for the meet, Bhanot said the long-jumper is concentrating on the World athletics championships in California and calling her back to the country for the Grand Prixs would affect her preparations.

"She is unwilling to participate since it could disturb her schedule very much. She would have taken at least a month to adjust to the conditions here and it would have a negative impact on her training," said Bhanot.

At the Hyderabad meet, India failed to manage even a single top-place finish and it was dominated by athletes from Sri Lanka and Kazakhstan.

Bhanot said he is hoping for a better show from the Indian athletes in Colombo.

"Though our athletes had little time after the National Games to prepare for the first leg, they could have done much better.

"But I am confident that their performance will improve with every outing," he said.

Though the AAFI announced team today, the athletes and coaches left for Colombo on Friday, from Hyderabad.

The team:

Men:

100m: Sanjay Ghosh, Sandeep Sarkaria

400m: Satbir Singh, Anil K Rohil

800m: P S Primesh, Ghamanda Ram

110m hurdles: Naunidh Singh

Long Jump: Maha Singh

Discus: Anil Kumar

Javelin: Harminder Singh, Jagdish Bishnoi

Women:

00m: Poonam Tomar

400m: Kalpana Reddy, S Geetha

800m: Sunita Kumari

00m hurdles and long jump: J J Shobha, Soma Biswas.

Coaches: Dr Kuntal Roy, Suresh K Saini.