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Indian high jumper Tejaswin Shankar has been included in India's squad for the upcoming Commonwealth Games (CWG 2022) in Birmingham.
The move comes after a battle in the Delhi High Court over the high jumper's selection. He has now been added to India's CWG 2022 squad in place of Arokia Rajiv, the 400m runner, after the latter failed in the trials in Patiala earlier this week.
Tejaswin took the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) to the courts over his selection to the Indian team. The AFI omitted him despite the high jumper clearing the cut-off mark set by the AFI.
The Delhi High Court said the matter was of national interest and directed AFI to include Tejaswin in India's CWG 2022 squad. The AFI said the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) has been given a quota of 36 athletes by the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) and that the AFI would want to add four more athletes to India's squad.
However, Tejaswin's inclusion is set in stone as the Commonwealth Games Federation, the organizing body of CWG, has to give clearance. The last date for sending all entries for CWG 2022 was June 29.
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The high jumper took to social media to announce his inclusion in India's CWG 2022 squad. He tweeted:
"Big Thanks to the twitter fam! 🙏🏾 Last 3 weeks have been a sleepless roller coaster & to finally get an opportunity to rep India at #CWG2022 is nothing short of a blessing. I have received lots of love but my heart goes out to mates who were equally deserving & missed."
The high jumper added that he hoped the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) would revisit the selection criteria and the selection policy but later deleted the same.
Indian athletics team for CWG 2022
The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) has selected a 36-member Indian track and field squad for the Commonwealth Games.
Men
Avinash Sable (3000m steeplechase), Murali Sreeshankar, Muhammed Anees (long jump), Praveen Chitravel, Abdulla Aboobacker, Eldhose Paul (all triple jump), Tejaswin Shankar (high jump), Neeraj Chopra, DP Manu, Rohit Yadav (all javelin), Sandeep Kumar, Amit Kharti (race walking), Amoj Jacob, Noah Nirmal Tom, Muhammed Ajmal, Naganathan Pandi and Rajesh Ramesh (4x400m relay).
Women
S Dhalalakshmi (100m and 4x100m relay), Jyothi Yarraji (100m hurdles), Aishwarya B (long jump and triple jump), Ancy Sojan (long jump), Manpreet Kaur (shotput), Navjeet Kaur Dhillon (discus), Annu Rani, Shilpa Rani (javelin), Manju Bala and Sarita Singh (hammer throw), Bhawana Jat, Priyanka Goswami (race walking), Hima Das, Dutee Chand, Srabani Nanda, MV Jilna and NS Simi (4x100m relay).
