71 athletes to attend camps for World Youth championship

Chandigarh, Apr 13 (UNI) Five boys and 12 girls from Kerala are among 71 athletes invited by the Athletic Federation of India for the coaching camp to prepare the Indian team for the coming World Youth Athletics Championship to be held in July.

Kerala athletes -- Nitin George (100m), Nikkim Thiamaiah (400m), Jithin C Thomas (high jump), Angelo S.S. (100m, long jump) and Renju Ramanan (400m) will attend the coaching camp at the J R D Tata Sports Complex, Jamshedpur from April 16 to May 30 the Girl athletes invited to the camp at LNCPE, Trivandrum are: Shilpa C (100m), Shimna Baby (100m), Liksy Joseph (heptathlon ), Niksy Joseph (heptathlon), Chinchu Jose (400m), Arya C. (400m), Stefy Abraham (800m ), Indulekha (400m), Neethu Mathew (triple jump), Marina Joseph (triple jump), Neethu Mathew (400m) and Dayona Stanley (heptathlon).

Meanwhile only three athletes from Punjab, including two girls, will attend the camps. Punjab athletes that qualified for the camp are: Inderjeet Singh (400m), Navjoban Kaur (1500m) and, Manpreet Kaur (shot put).

According to H S Bhadu, secretary of the Haryana Amateur Athletic Association, five boys from Haryana state have touched the AFI qualifying standards set by the International Amateur Athletic Federation.

The Haryana athletes shortlisted by the AFI for the camp are: Virender (javelin), Dharambir (200m), Praveen (400m), Baljeet (800m) and Sudhir Prakash (100, long jump), Selection of athletes was done on the basis of their performance achieved in 2006. Athletes who have either attained or close to the entry standard set by IAAF have been short listed for the camp. The boys camp will be held at the J R D Tata Sports Complex in Jamshedpur. The girls will attend camp at LNCPE in Trivendrum. Both camps will be held from April 16 to May 30.

The Indian squad will be finalized during the National Youth Athletics Championship at Bangalore on June 2.

UNI