Paris Olympics: Neeraj Chopra to lead India's 28-member squad

India has named its 28-member athletics team for the upcoming Paris Olympics, which will be headlined by javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra. 

However, the national federation is likely to include long jumper Jeswin Aldrin to the team later, after the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) formally notifies the world governing body about the pulling out of M Sreeshankar, who had breached the automatic qualifying mark but later ruled out of the Olympics due to an injury.

The 26-year-old reigning world champion, Neeraj Chopra will skip the last Diamond League in Paris to prepare for the quadrennial extravaganza as almost all the selected names are on expected lines.

The squad comprises 17 men and 11 women athletes with some of the other prominent names being Asian Games champions Avinash Sable, Tajinderpal Singh Toor along with sprint hurdler Jyothi Yarraji, among others.

All the countries must inform WA about any pullout of their athletes by the midnight of July 4. From July 4-6, WA will reallocate the declined quota places to the next best-ranked athlete in the same event, and will then publish the final list on July 7.

The Indian athletics chief coach Radhakrishnan Nair told PTI, “It was decided in the selection committee meeting today that whoever gets quota place (through world ranking) later on will be added in the team,"  further adding, “So, once we inform WA that Sreeshankar is not participating, Aldrin will get the quota place and he should be added in the team.”