Olympic gold medalist Neeraj to lead 37-member team in Commonwealth Games-2022
Tokyo Olympic gold medalist Neeraj Chopra will lead a 37- member Indian team at the Commonwealth Games-2022 to be held in Birmingham from 28 July to 08 August, 2022. The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) has announced this on 16 June.
The 37-member squad selected by the AFI's selection committee has 18 women players, including star runners Hima Das and Dutee Chand. They have been selected in the women's 4x100m relay team. The selectors have also selected the men's 4x400m relay team.
Avinash Sable, who recently broke his 3000 steeplechase national record for the eighth time, and Jyoti Yarraji, who broke her own 100m national record twice last month, also found a place in the team. Aishwarya Babu, who broke her own record in triple jump with an effort of 14.14m at the recent National Inter-State Championships in Chennai, is also part of the team.
National record holder Amlan Borgohain in 200m, failed to make it to the team as he failed to achieve the Commonwealth Games qualifying level set by the AFI Some of the selected players will have to regain their form and fitness before the Birmingham Games.
Commonwealth Games
Birmingham (England) will host the 2022 edition of the Commonwealth Games from 28 July to 8 August. Earlier, South Africa was supposed to host this year's edition, but due to lack of progress in its preparation, the right to host was withdrawn. The year 2026 Commonwealth Games will be hosted by the Victoria province of Australia.
The first Commonwealth Games were held in the year 1930 in Hamilton, Canada, where 11 countries sent 400 athletes to participate in six sports and 59 events. These games are organized every four years since1930 (except1942 and 1946 due to World War II).