KOCHI: Three Kerala athletes – Jinson Johnson, Mohammed Anas Yahiya and PU Chitra – have been named in the Asia-Pacific Team for the prestigious
IAAF Continental Cup
to be held in Ostrava,
Czech Republic
on September 8-9.
The
Asian Athletics Association
(AAA) selected four more top Indian athletes including star javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra and sprint sensation
Hima Das, too are to represent Asia-Pacific Team in the event which is competed among the season's top rankers from the regional associations.
Based on current IAAF world rankings, Neeraj (javelin), Anas (400m), Jinson (800m) and Arpinder Singh (triple jump) made it to the AAA list of athletes for Asian-Pacific in men's category while Hima (400m), Chitra (1500m) and
Sudha Singh
(3000m steeplechase) were included in the women's event.
In a communication to the Athletics Federation of India, AAA Secretary Maurice R Nicholas said, “The excellent performances of these selected athletes are based on the top lists rankings of IAAF and our statisticians for Asia-Pacific. 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.”
While Neeraj is currently training in Finland under national javelin coach
Uwe Hohn
from Germany, Anas and Hima are preparing for next month's Asian Games in Czech Republic with other athletes under Galina Bukharina. Both Jinson Johnson and Sudha Singh are also in the national camp and currently training in Bhutan ahead of the Asian Games.
The IAAF Continental Cup was founded in 2010 and is contested every four years. Four teams, comprising the best athletes from Africa, Americas, Asian-Pacific and Europe, participate in the competition.
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