Asian champion Nandini pulls out of World Championships

Reigning Asian champion heptathlete Nandini Agasara on Sunday said she will not compete at next month's World Athletics Championships in Tokyo despite qualifying for the showpiece due to an elbow injury she had sustained in May.

The 22-year-old Nandini received a provisional berth for the World Championships to be held from September 13-21 by virtue of winning the heptathlete gold medal at the Asian Championships in Gumi, South Korea, in May.

Under the rules, athletes can qualify for Tokyo World Championships as "area champions in all the individual events (except for the marathons) on condition that there is no better entry (by World Rankings) of another athlete from the same Area in the same event".

Since there is no other Asian athlete in the World Athletics list -- Road to Tokyo -- as of Sunday, the deadline for qualification, Nandini is expected to get an invite from the global body, though the national federation (AFI) will have the ultimate authority to enter her name or not based on its own selection criteria.

But Nandini said she is still feeling pain on her left elbow due to the injury she had sustained while winning gold in the Asian Championships.

"I am still on rehab after the injury during the Asian Championships. I am still feeling pain on my left elbow. So, after consulting with my coach (A N Shaji), I have decided not to compete at the World Championships in Tokyo," Nandini told PTI from her home in Hyderabad.

"Next year is very important as there are Asian Games and Commonwealth Games. Then there is Olympics in 2028 in which I want to focus to do well. Participating in Tokyo World Championships may aggravate my injury," she added.

She said she was getting better with rehabilitation, and should be

fine next season.

"I suffered the injury while having my second attempt in the javelin throw event (out of the seven) and I ran my 800m with straps (on her elbow). Somehow, I completed the competition."

After the Asian Championships gold, Nandini was appointed as sports advisor to the Telangana Social Welfare Residential Educational Institutions Society (TGSWREIS) in Hyderabad in recognition of her outstanding achievements.

She said she has joined the post in July at the very institute where she trained in 2019.

"I have joined as sports advisor in July and it is under the Telengana state social welfare department, at the very institute where I had done my coaching and training.

"I will have financial stability but I am not quitting athletics. I will continue to train and prepare for the Asian and Commonwealth Games. Then my main focus would be the 2028 Olympics."

Nandini had also won a heptathlon bronze in Hangzhou Asian Games in China in 2023, edging out compatriot Swapna Barman. After finishing fourth, Barman had controversially alleged that Nandini was ineligible to compete in the women's event as she is a "transgender".

Barman later apologised, saying the allegations were made due to sheer disappointment and emotional outburst after losing out on a medal.

Nandini, on her part, had questioned Barman's ethics for making such allegations to another Indian woman and that too in a foreign country.

Recently, the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) has said that women athletes qualifying for next month's World Championships will have to undergo SRY gene test as per the latest directive of the international parent body World Athletics.

The SRY (Sex-determining Region Y) gene test is primarily used to identify the presence or absence of the SRY gene, which plays a crucial role in male sex determination during fetal development. 

On July 30, World Athletics had made it mandatory for all athletes wishing to compete in the female category at the World Championships to undergo a "once-in-a-lifetime test" for the SRY gene -- a reliable proxy for determining biological sex.