AFI recommends 14 qualified athletes to London

New Delhi: The selection committee of the Athletics Federation of India on Monday met here and decided to recommend all the 14 athletes who have qualified for the Olympics for their participation in the London Games.

AFI President Adille Sumariwala said that the selection committee felt that all the athletes should be given a chance to take part in the Olympics though some of them have only crossed the 'B' qualification standard.

"The selection committee decided to send all 14 for the Olympics. Since they have qualified, they should be given a chance. Some of them could only cross the 'B' standard but we have decided to send them also," he said after the meeting of the committee headed by Gurbachan Singh Randhawa.

"The only thing to be seen is that they should be fit to take part in the competition," he said.

Sumariwala said that the committee discussed the names of the coaches and the support staff to accompany the athletes but did not take a final decision.

"We have got a quota of four coaches from Indian Olympic Association and the selection committee discussed about this today. We will take a decision on this in next few days, along with the support staff," he said.

Asked about athletes like discus thrower Vikas Gowda wanting to accompany his father Shive Gowda to London as his coach, Sumariwala said, "We will try to accommodate. If not accredited coach, they may be accommodated to have access to training or some other things.”

Asked if the AFI would want dope test all the athletes, he said, "Most of them have been training outside the country and they were taking part in international events. They must have been tested at these meets.

"In any case we want our athletes to be clean. We want them to undergo dope tests," he added.

Athletics events will be held from August 3-12 at the showpiece Olympic Stadium in London.

Following are the 14 athletes qualified for London Olympics:

Men: Vikas Gowda (discus throw); Om Prakash Singh Karhana (shot put); Gurmeet Singh, Baljinder Singh and K T Irfan (all 20km walk); Basant Bahadur Rana (50km walk); Ram Singh Yadav (marathon); Renjith Maheswary (triple jump)

Women: Krishna Poonia and Seema Antil (discus throw); Mayookha Johny (triple jump); Tintu Luka (800m); Sudha Singh (300m steeplechase); Sahana Kumari (high jump).