New Delhi: India’s top sprinter Amlan Borgohain will be added to the Indian team for the Asian Games after he was left out of the initial list of participants issued by the sports ministry, Athletics Federation of India (AFI) president Addille Sumariwalla said on Monday.
Borgohain’s name was missing in the 65-member athletics team for the Asian Games issued by the sports ministry a few days ago but Sumariwalla said it was because the Assam athlete could not touch the qualifying time set by the AFI for the Hangzhou Games.
Borgohain won gold in the men’s 200m race during the National Inter-State Championships in Bhubaneswar in June which served as the selection event for the Asian Games. But his performance of 20.71 seconds fell short of Asian Games qualification time of 20.61 seconds.
“Yes, he (Borgohain) is in the team. His name will be there in the new list,” Sumariwalla told PTI.
The 25-year-old Borgohain holds the men’s 200m national record of 20.52 seconds. He also is the 100m national record holder with a time of 10.25 seconds.
Athletics made up the largest number of participants — 65 — in the Indian team of 634 for the Asian Games, according to the list issued by the sports ministry a few days ago.
Track and field athletes contributed 20 medals (8 gold, 9 silver, 3 bronze) out of India’s total of 70 medals in the 2018 Asian Games.
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Earlier, the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) requested the Sports Ministry to include three shotgun shooters — skeet marksman Angad Veer Singh Bajwa and women’s trap shooters Manisha Keer and Preeti Rajak — in the Asian Games team to raise the country’s medal hopes at the continental event.
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