With the 2024 Paris Olympics less than 15 days away now, the Indian track and field team has faced some issues with a name missing of one of its representatives. In a surprising turn of events, shot putter Abha Khatua’s name went missing from the Indian athletics team, which was published by the World Athletics, an international governing body, despite Indian Olympics Association’s (IOA) inclusion.
Khatua, who is currently training in Poland as a part of her preparation campaign ahead of the Olympics, missed a place in the list issued by the international body. Although, the IOA hasn’t been notified of the same as only 29 athletes were named from the track and field athletes by World Athletics.
“It is unlikely that it could be a technical error on the part of World Athletics,” an official was quoted. However, the official added that there were attempts to contact the international body, but were unsuccessful. Moreover, an AFI official stated that the Federation is however, unaware of this issue with Khatua, while another source mentioned that the matter has been put in front of the World Athletics.
“The IOA entered 30 track and field athletes including two reserves for the Paris Olympics,” an IOA representative added, confirming of the submission of 30 athletes in track and field events for India.
Khatua secured her Paris Olympics quota on the basis of the world ranking system. Although her journey seemed far from away, Khatua went on to break the national record at the Federation Cup in April with a gold medal win throw of 18.41m. She continued her struggle to breach the qualification mark until her 17.53m gold medal winning throw at the National Inter State Championships, where she confirmed her spot.