Asian Championships: India hopeful of fine outing despite pull-outs, dope flunks

Murali Sreeshankar

The build-up was far from ideal with pull-outs and dope flunks but the Indian team, led by shot putter Tajinderpal Singh Toor and long jumper Murali Sreeshankar, would still look for an impactful show in the Asian Athletics Championships starting here Wednesday.

Shot putter Karanveer Singh failed an out-of-competition dope test and was left out of the 54-member original Indian team which departed for Thailand on Saturday.

Anjali Devi, who won the women's 400m gold at the National Inter-State Championships last month with an impressive time of 51.48 seconds in her first race after an injury lay-off of more than three years, was also caught for doping.

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In Aldrin's absence, Sreeshankar, the world number two this season with his 8.81m effort last month, will be the top contender for the men's long jump gold.

In men's shot put, Asian record holder and defending champion Toor is again the hot favourite to win gold after his 21.77m throw in the National Inter-State Championships last month.

"He [Toor] has a bright chance of winning a gold medal," chief athletics coach Radhakrishnan Nair had said.

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