Commonwealth Games medallist Avinash Sable was on Friday named in the 59-member Indian squad for the Asian Athletics Championships to be held at Gumi, South Korea, next month. Apart from the steeplechaser, another notable inclusion in the squad is Tejaswin Shankar, the Asian Games silver medallist in the decathlon. However, Dev Meena, the pole vaulter who rewrote his own national record, missed the bus. He had cleared 5.35 metres, but the Asian Championships qualifying standard set by the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) was 5.51m. “I felt the federation should have brought it (qualifying mark) down a bit, about 10 centimetres, so I can go and compete,” Meena said. “But they know best. I know I will go much higher.” Annu Rani, the national record holder in women's javelin, was selected despite not meeting the qualifying standard at the Federation Cup Senior Athletics Championships in Kochi. The AFI had made it mandatory for athletes to meet the qualifying standards in their respective events at the Federation Cup. However, AFI president Bahadur Singh Sagoo had said on Thursday that the selection committee would have the final say on whether those who had met the standards in other competitions this year would be considered. Annu registered a best throw of 56.66m at the Federation Cup but had breached the qualifying standard of 58 metres with a throw of 58.82m at the Indian Open Throws Competition in Mumbai in March. Animesh Kujur, who set a national record in the 200m, was part of the squad. Kujur has also been named in the 4x100m men's relay squad. World Champion Neeraj Chopra, set to participate in the Doha Diamond League on May 16, wasn't named in the squad. The Olympic silver medallist last participated in the Asian Championships in 2017. In-form distance runner and national record holder in the 5,000m and 10,000m, Gulveer Singh has been selected for both events. Squad: Men: 200m: Animesh Kujur. 800m: Anu Kumar, Krishna Kumar. 1500m: Yoonus Shah. 3000m steeplechase: Avinash Sable. 5,000m: Gulveer Singh, Abhishek Pal. 10,000m: Gulveer Singh, Sawan Barwal. Triple Jump: Praveen Chithravel, Abdulla Aboobacker. High jump: Sarvesh Anil Kushare. Shot put: Samardeep Singh Gill. Javelin throw: Sachin Yadav, Yashvir Singh. Decathlon: Tejaswin Shankar. 20km race walk: Servin Sebastian, Amit; 4x100m relay: Pranav Pramod G, Animesh Kujur, Manikanta Hoblidhar, Amlan Borgohain, Tamilarasu S, Ragul Kumar G, Gurindervir Singh; 4x400m relay: Vishal TK, Jay Kumar, Manu TS, Rince Joseph, Dharamveer Choudhary, Tushar Manna, Santhosh Kumar, Mohit Kumar. Women: 200m: Nithya Gandhe, 400m: Rupal Chaudhary, Vithya Ramraj. 800m: Twinkle Chaudhary, Pooja. 1500m: Lili Das, Pooja. 3000m steeplechase: Parul Chaudhary, Ankita. 5,000m: Sanjivani Jadhav, Parul Chaudhary. 10,000m: Sanjivani Jadhav, Seema. 100m hurdles: Jyothi Yarraji. 400m hurdles: Vithya Ramraj, Anu R. Long jump: Shaili Singh, Ancy Sojan. High jump: Pooja. Discus throw: Seema. Javelin throw: Annu Rani. Heptathlon: Agasara Nandani. 4x100m relay: Nithya Gandhe, Abinaya Rajarajan, Sneha SS, Srabani Nanda, Daneshwari AT, V Sudheeksha. 4x400m relay: Rupal, Sneha K, Subha Venkatesan, Jisna, Mathew, Kunja Rajitha, Sandramol Sabu.
