Asian Athletics Championship: Vikas Gowda, five others make cut

BHUBANESWAR: Putting all speculation to rest, the six athletes named 'provisionally' in the Indian squad were cleared to take part in the Asian Athletics Championship which begins here on Thursday.
All the athletes had to go undergo trials in front of selection and technical panel members here before being finally cleared.
"All athletes who were asked to report for confirmatory trials, including national-record holders Vikas Gowda (discus throw) and Siddhanth Thingalaya (110m hurdles), have been cleared to compete in the 22nd Asian Athletics Championships to be held at the Kalinga Stadium here," an AFI release stated.
Since these six athletes trained outside the India camp, the national federation wanted to make sure that they are all in perfect shape for this big event.
There was some uncertainty over the inclusion of reigning champion Vikas Gowda after the discus thrower managed just 57.79m in the trials, which the coaches felt was well below his best and short of a medal-winning mark.
But the United States-based athlete ultimately got the nod to represent the country one more time. It was an early birthday gift for Vikas, who turns 34 on Wednesday.
Gowda struck gold in the 2013 Asian meet in Pune with an effort of 64.90m and produced an encore in the previous edition in Wuhan, China, with a throw of 62.03m.
The others to get the green light were two female athletes hurdler and long-jumper Nayana James and triple-jumper Joyline Murali Lobo -as well as longjumper Siddharth Mohan Naik and triple-jumper Karthik Unnikrishnan.
"We are pleased with the results of the confirmatory tests of our athletes and are confident that the entire Indian squad will deliver high-quality performances," AFI president Adille Sumariwalla said.
"We were keen to ensure that we entered a fit and competitive contingent for this meet. We are sure that the athletes will now fly the Indian flag high at this excellent facility in the Kalinga Stadium," Sumariwalla hoped.