Athletics federation makes it clear, only medal contenders will go to Asian Games

Chairman of AFI’s selection committee and former president Adille Sumariwalla made it clear that only those who are in the medal fight will take the flight to Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, from September 19 to October 4.

Sumariwalla informed the media while announcing the qualifying standards for the 2026 Asian Games on Saturday.

As per the standards set, male athletes in at least some of the competitions like the 100 metre sprint will have to break National Records to make the selection criteria. The current national mark in men’s 100m is 10.18 seconds set by Animesh Kujur, while the qualifying mark is set at 10.16s.

“We have gone to make things slightly more competitive in certain events. There have been over three months of discussion with coaches, foreign coaches, athletes, keeping two things in mind. The first thing is that we should not miss a medal. If we would have taken it, we would have won a medal,” Sumariwalla said.

“The second thing is that we do not want to take passengers. People will qualify for 6th place but they have no chance in the event. They will qualify but they will be nowhere. So these people become a liability to the rest of the team. They are not serious, they do not let others sleep, they stay on WhatsApp all night etc,” he added.

Sumariwalla also clarified that the athletes have to be nearer the qualification marks in at least three competitions -- Inter-State and National Open Championships and their respective state championships.

“…But at the last event they should be at the qualifying standard. So they have to be at the qualifying standard. Otherwise they peak early. You have seen Jeswin's (Aldrin) case. Jeswin has set a national record every year in March and after that he has not even jumped 8 metres. Should we take him or not?” quipped the former AFI president.

Qualification marks for a few events including 4x100 mixed relay, 21 km race walk and marathon walk, will be announced at a later stage. “We do not have any mixed relay data yet. So that is one event which the selection committee will later look at. There will be Asian relays, world relays before that. They will have a look at that and create the qualifying (mark). Same with marathon walk. We do not have any recent data because these are new events,” Sumariwalla explained.

Decision on CWG team

The former AFI president further said that the selection committee will decide on the Commonwealth Games squad soon. The Commonwealth Games are to be held in Glasgow from July 23 to August 2. With the Asian Games slated to be held from September 19, AFI will take a pragmatic decision about team selection.

“We will definitely send a strong squad for the Commonwealth Games. We will be discussing with the coaches about the athletes we will really focus on for the Asian Games and who are the people we can send (to CWG). We do not need to send javelin (athletes) and there are other events where we do not need to send so we will send accordingly but the focus for this year is the Asian Games,” he added.