Hima Das makes it to AAA list of athletes for IAAF Continental Cup

Sprinter Hima Das, who recently became the first Indian woman to clinch gold medal in the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) World U-20 Athletic Championships, has made it to the Asian Athletics Association's list of athletes who will be representing Asia-Pacific team in the upcoming IAAF Continental Cup 2018.

The list comprises Neeraj Chopra (Javelin throw), Muhammed Anas (400m race), Jinson Johnson (800m race) and Arpinder Singh (Triple Jump) in men's category while Hima Das (400m race), PU Chitra (1500m race) and Sudha Singh (3000m Steeplechase) are included in the women's event.

The selection for the tournament, where the best athletes from Africa, Americas, Asian-Pacific and Europe will participate, was made on the basis of current IAAF world rankings.

Reflecting on the selected players, AAA Secretary Maurice R Nicholas said that the excellent performance by these players has gained them the spot in the team but they need to continue performing well so that they don' get replaced by the better performers.

"The excellent performances of these selected athletes are based on the top list's rankings of IAAF and our statisticians for Asia-Pacific," Nicholas said.

"We are aware that results are rapidly changing in the next few days and if an athlete overtakes the performances of your selected athletes, he or she would be replaced by us. We hope that this will not happen," he added.

All the selected athletes are currently engaged in the preparation for the upcoming Asian Games which will commence from August 18.

While Neeraj is currently training in Finland under national javelin coach Uwe Hohn from Germany, Anas and Hima are preparing for Asian Games in the Czech Republic with other athletes shortlisted for the Asian Games under coach Galina Bukharina.

Both Jinson Johnson and Sudha Singh are also in national camp and currently training in Bhutan ahead of the Asian Games.

The IAAF Continental Cup is slated to be held from September 8 to 9 in Ostrava, Czech Republic.