Asian Games 2026: Tajinderpal, Rohit, Avinash, Parul in focus as India gear up for athletics campaign

The athletics campaign for India will start from September 23 and will last till September 29.

Team India will start their campaign in athletics campaign at the ongoing Asian Games from Wednesday, with stars like Avinash Sable, Tajinderpal Singh Toor, Parul Chaudhary and Gulveer Singh among players to be in action. The athletics campaign for India will start from September 23 and will last till September 29.

However, things will be a little different for India in the men's javelin throw with Neeraj Chopra out due to an injury, with Rohit Yadav and Commonwealth Games gold medalist Yash Vir Singh filling his gigantic shoes, as per Olympics.com. Rohit has produced two sensational 87 m throws this season, with his best coming in August at the World Athletics Continental Tour Silver Meet in Bhubaneswar, where an 87.68 m throw earned him the gold.

Avinash Sable will be aiming to defend his men's 3000 m steeplechase title, while Tajinderpal will aiming to make it a hat-trick of Asian Games gold medals. Parul Choudhary will also be defending her gold medal in the women's 5000 m and will also be featuring in 1500 m and 3000 m steeplechase. Rajesh Ramesh, part of India's gold-medal-winning 4x400 m relay quartet at the 2022 Hangzhou edition, has also been picked.

Avinash will be defending his title after returning from knee surgery which caused him to miss the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Hurdler Jyothi Yarraji, the 2022 silver medalist at the Asian Games, will also be returning to competition after a long injury lay-off. Long-jump star Murali Sreeshankar, a silver medalist at Hangzhou, will also be arriving in the Asian Games with a lot of momentum by his side, getting his second CWG silver on Glasgow.

Tejaswin Shankar, Gulveer Singh, a double medalist at CWG 2026 in 10,000 m and 5,000 m, the long-jump record holder Ancy Sojan, Praveen Chithravel and Vithya Ramraj are among other medalists from Hangzhou who are coming to boost their medal tallies. India will be competing in 41 out of 50 medal events in athletics, with no representation in men's 110 hurdles, discus throw, half marathon race walk, marathon race walk, 4x100m relay and women’s 100m, marathon, javelin throw and half marathon race walk. (ANI)