Indian athletics team to train at three foreign venues for final preparations for Olympics

New Delhi, July 11 (HS). The 30-member Indian athletics team for the Olympics will train at three different locations abroad in the final leg of its preparations, and will assemble in Paris on July 28, four days before the start of the track and field competitions.

The Olympic Sports Centre in Spala, Poland, Antalya in Turkey and St Moritz in Switzerland are the three overseas destinations where Indian athletes will train in the final leg of their preparations. “Members of the national athletics team will train in different locations to prepare for the Olympic Games, but they will have to assemble in Paris on July 28,” chief coach Radhakrishnan Nair said on Wednesday.

Olympic and world champion javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra will be staying in Antalya, Turkey. “Chopra has already reached Turkey and will reach Paris on July 28,” Nair said. The Indian athletics team has 30 members with the inclusion of long jumper Jaswin Aldrin and 500m runner Ankita Dhyani based on their rankings in the World Athletics Road to Paris system.

Four race walkers – Akshdeep Singh, Paramjeet Singh Bisht, Vikas Singh, Suraj Panwar – and triple jumper Abdullah Abubakar are currently at the Sports Authority of India centre in Bengaluru, while Avinash Sable and Parul Chaudhary will train in St Moritz, Switzerland. All members of the 4x400m relay team (men and women) will leave for Poland on Thursday. Four athletes – Kishore Kumar Jena (javelin throw), Jyoti Yaraji (100m hurdles), Jeswin Aldrin (long jump) and Praveen Chitravel (triple jump) – arrived in Poland earlier this week.