India fields 17 athletes in Beijing

17 track and field athletes will represent India at the Olympic Games in Beijing. 

While the women maintained their strength (14) on the team, only three men will represent the country this time when compared to the five who made it to the last edition at Athens. Of the three, Discus thrower Vikas Gowda will take part in his second Olympics.

Among the women, 2003 World championships Long Jump bronze medallist Anju Bobby George will entering for the Olympic arena for the second time. Four years ago, she finished sixth oin Athens with a personal best of 6.83m, which remain the national record. 

Three discus throwers went to the Games in 2004. Of those only Harwant Kaur returned to join the squad along with newcomer Krishna Poonia this year, while Seema Antil barely missed the qualifier. However, three heptathletes booked a berth to the Beijing Games. 

The brave J.J. Shobha had overcome an injury to finish eleventh in Athens and has become the first to attain the “A” qualifying standard in the Heptathlon during the national inter-state championships at Madurai. 

Pramila Aiyappa, a Sydney Olympian, has fractionally missed the Athens qualification but was lucky to make the Beijing squad when she conquered the combined events nationals at her home-base in Bangalore, with young Sushmita Singha Roy joined her as the third entry.

The women's 4x400m Relay quartet had finished a creditable seventh in 2004 with a time of 3:28.51. Three athletes from the Athens team, Satti Geetha, Chitra K. Soman and Manjit Kaur are going to Olympics once again.  Manjit Kaur, the national record holder at 51.05 secs, ran a splendid anchor leg in 49.85 in Athens, however preferred to run only the individual 400m in Beijing. 

MEN -
- Surendra Singh (1 October 1978)
10,000m
PB/SB: 28:02.89 Vigo12-Jul-2008
 -- Bettered the 32-year-old national record of 28:48.72 set by Harichand in Montreal Olympics

-Renjith Maheswary (30 January 1986)
Triple Jump
PB: 17.04 Guwahati 23-Jun-2007; SB: 16.53 Bangkok 23-Jun-2008
 -- Reigning Asian Champion with a wind-aided mark of 17.19 in Amman

- Vikas Gowda (5 July 1983)
Discus Throw
PB: 64.96 Salinas 17-May-2007; SB: 64.83 Salinas 08-May-2008
 -- American NCAA champion in 2006

WOMEN -
- Manjit Kaur (24 April 1982)
400m
PB: 51.05 Chennai 16-Jun-2004; SB: 52.08 Yalta 06-Jun-2008
 -- Member of the national team which sets an Area 4x400m record of 3:37.46 in this year’s Asian Indoor Championships at Doha

- Preeja Sreedharan (13 March 1982)
10,000m
PB/SB: 32:04.41 Watford 14-Jun-2008
 -- A double silver medalist (5K/10K) in last year’s Asian championships at Amman, she went on to win the Asian Indoor title over 3,000m in Doha 2008.

- Anju Bobby George (19 April 1977)
Long Jump
PB: 6.83 Athens 27-Aug-2004; SB: 6.55 Doha 09-May-2008 & Hanoi 30-Jun-2008
 -- First Indian athlete to win a World championship medal, she made a clean sweep of titles in this year’s Asian Grand Prix series

- Krishna Poonia (5 May 1977)
Discus Throw
PB/SB: 63.41 Salinas 08-May-2008
 -- A bronze medalist in Asian Games at Doha 2006, Poonia had a good exposure from her training in United States this season.

-Harwant Kaur (5 July 1980)
Discus Throw
PB: 63.05 Kiev 07-Aug-2004; SB: 61.09 Madurai 17-Jun-2008
 -- Harwant had a training stint in Australia last year and have benefited out of it.

-Javur Jagadeshappa Shobha (14 January 1978)
Heptathlon
PB: 6211 New Delhi 17-Mar-2004; SB: 6043 Madurai 18-Jun-2008
 -- Winner of two back-to-back bronze medals in the Asian Games of 2002 and 2006, Shobha is an excellent long jumper credited with a PB of 6.66m registered in 2004.

- Pramila Aiyappa-Ganapathy (8 May 1977)
Heptathlon
PB: 6105 Chennai 31-July-2000; SB: 6078 Bangalore 18-Jul-2008
 -- A silver medalist in the Asian championships way back in 2000, Pramila made a come back in brilliant style at the Olympic arena after a disappointing miss in 2004.

- Sushmita Singha Roy (26 March 1984)
Heptathlon
PB/SB: 6027 Bangalore 18-July-2008
 -- After having achieved the ‘B’ standard with 5866 while winning the FedCup at Bhopal in early February, Roy nearly missed the flight as she was 25 points short of the ‘A’ grade while Shobha made it in Madurai in June.  However the determined youngster attained it in the Combined Events nationals at Bangalore.

- 4x400m Relay
NR: 3:26.89 Athens 27-Aug-2004
SB: 3:28.29 Korat 26-Jun-2008
 -- The team comprises of Mandeep Kaur, Chitra K Soman, Sini Jose, M.R. Poovamma, Satti Geetha and K. Mrudula. 

Ram. Murali Krishnan for the IAAF