Star Indian javelin throwers Neeraj Chopra and Kishore Jena have been given direct entry into the Federation Cup finals here on May 15, having already bettered the minimum qualification mark of 75m multiple times in their careers.
Olympic and world champion Chopra is coming off a fairly good outing at the Doha Diamond League last week where he finished second with a throw of 88.38m. Asian Games silver-winner Jena's Diamond League debut, however, ended in disappointment as he was eliminated after three rounds with 76.31m being his best.
DP Manu, who is looking to qualify for the Paris Olympic Games by breaching the 85.50m mark, will also compete directly in the finals.
"All those who have crossed 75m will not compete in the qualifying round on Tuesday. There are nine of them from among those who had made entries, including Neeraj and Jena. They will directly compete in the final on Wednesday," Indian athletics head coach Radhakrishnan Nair said.
"The remaining who have below 75m mark will compete in the qualifiers and the top three will join the nine above-75m throwers in the final."
The AFI is quite looking forward to 26-year-old Chopra's first home competitive outing in three years.
"The AFI is not at all surprised at Neeraj taking part in the Federation Cup. His participation in domestic event is no doubt a very good thing for Indian athletics," a top official of the AFI said.
It is learnt that the AFI wanted Chopra to compete in a domestic event after he won gold in Tokyo Olympics and before the Paris Games.
He did not take part in any domestic event in 2022 and 2023 as he was training or competing abroad. His last domestic event was the Federation Cup in March 2021.
It is learnt that Chopra has reached India from Doha but will land here only on Tuesday.
Bengal's Abha Khatua set a national record in women's shot put with a big throw of 18.41m on the second day of competition.
Abha, who is representing Maharashtra, was the joint record holder of 18.06m with Manpreet Kaur before this competition. But with her fifth-round throw of 18.41m at the Kalinga Stadium, she became the sole national record holder. Her effort was well short of the Olympics qualifying mark of 18.80m, which no Indian woman has ever been able to reach.
The 28-year-old Abha, who hails from a poor family, started athletics when she was in 7th standard.
Born to a farmer father at Khurshi village in west Midnapur district, Abha tried out many athletics events before settling for shot put four years ago.
Initially, she dabbled in 100m, 200m, 400m, long jump and javelin. She also participated in the heptathlon in 2017-18 but since she was not good in high jump (one of the seven events in heptathlon), she shifted to shot put at the end of 2018.
However, 2021 proved to be a tough period in her life as she suffered from Covid-19, chikungunya and high uric acid.
