A race for Youth Olympics berths

Eighteen Indian athletes will be in action at the Youth Olympic Games’ Asian area qualification meet in Bangkok.

Uttarakhand’s 800m Asian junior Anu Kumar will be in action at the Youth Olympic Games’ Asian area qualification meet which begins in Bangkok on Wednesday.

Tamil Nadu triple jumper Praveen Chithravel, the under-18 World No. 2, and Uttarakhand’s 800m Asian junior Anu Kumar will be among the 18 Indian athletes in action at the Youth Olympic Games’ Asian area qualification meet which begins in Bangkok on Wednesday.

“Praveen has a good chance of making the cut,” coach Robert Bobby George told Sportstar from Bangkok on Tuesday evening. “We should be doing well in all the field events.”

The athletics world body IAAF has fixed a certain number of berths in each event for every area and they vary from event to event. The boys 100m, for example, offers eight Youth Olympic Games berths for the Asian area while there is only one spot in the boys 1500m.

That could brighten Delhi’s Nisar Ahmed’s chances of making the cut in the 100m in the two-day meet.

Meanwhile, in the throws, Vikas Yadav appears to be a favourite for the gold in the boys javelin.

The Indian team: Boys: Anu Kumar, Sreekiran Nandakumar (both 800m), Vikas Yadav, K. Ajai Rajsingh Rana (javelin throw), Nisar Ahmed (100, 200m), Satnam Singh (200m), Praveen Chithravel (triple jump), Ikram Ali Khan (discus throw), Raghav (2000m steeple chase), Suraj Pawar Soren (10,000m walk).

Girls: Radha Chaudhary (800m), Tai Hiraman Bamhane (1500m), Seema (3000m), Aparna Roy (100m hurdles), Vishnu Priya Jayaprakash (400m hurdles), Deepanshi Singh (long jump), Sandra Babu (triple jump), Roji Patel (5000m walk).