India fields 19-member team for Youth Olympic qualification

The selection committee of Athletics Federation of India which met here today identified 14 boys and 5 girls to participate in the Asian Area Qualification competition in Bangkok (May 21-22) for this year's Youth Olympic Games to be held in August at Nanjing, China.
The selection was made based on the performance of athletes in the recently concluded National Youth Athletics Championships at Goa.
Hurdler Maymon Poulose and race walker K T Neena, both of them hails from Kerala and eclipsed national youth records in their respective events last week's Youth Nationals, are also in the team.
Hammer thrower Pradeep Kumar (Rajasthan) and javelin thrower Pushpa Jakhar (Haryana), who improved the meet marks in Goa, besides metric miler Ajay Kumar Saroj (Assam), race walker Naveen (Delhi) and steeplechaser Harbax Singh (Uttar Pradesh) made it to the national team to Bangkok.

In the last Youth Olympic Games at Singapore four years ago Indian athletes had won two silver medals through 400m hurdler Durgesh Kumar Pal and discus thrower Arjun Kumar.
Following the footsteps of Durgesh, Aftab Alam from Maharashtra will represent India in the 400m hurdles this time while Tamil Nadu discus thrower S Mithravarun will try his might in the Thai capital.

Leading athletes from the area qualification competition in Bangkok together two wild-card entries from hosts China will be taking part in YOG at Nanjing on behalf of Asia.
TEAM:
BOYS: Chandan Baurai (West Bengal, 400m), Arshdeep Singh (Punjab, 800m), Ajay Kumar Saroj (Assam, 1500m), Kisan Tadvi (Maharashtra, 3000m), Maymon Poulose (Kerala, 110m hurdles), Aftab Alam (Maharashtra, 400m hurdles), Harbax Singh (Uttar Pradesh, 2000m steeplechase), Naveen (Delhi, 10000m race walk), Sahil Mahabali (Haryana, Long jump), Sanal Scaria (Kerala, High jump), Nishan Singh (Punjab, Shot put), S. Mithravarun (Tamil Nadu, Discus throw), Pradeep Kumar (Rajasthan, Hammer throw) and Neeraj Chopra (Haryana, Javelin throw)

GIRLS: K T Neena (Kerala, 5000m race walk), Rochelle Maria Macfarlane (Tamil Nadu, Triple jump), Libia Shaji (Kerala, High jump), Priyanka (Haryana, Discus throw) and Pushpa Jakhar (Haryana, Javelin throw) Coach: Wazir Singh (Chief Coach for Youth Athletics in India).