New Delhi: Jeswin Aldrin and Ankita Dhyani have been included in the Indian Paris 2024 Olympics athletics team after they made the cut via the world rankings, officially confirmed by World Athletics on Sunday.
With their inclusion, the Indian athletics team for Paris 2024 now consists of 30 members, as per an official release by Olympics.com.
The qualification window for track and field events for Paris 2024 ended on June 30. Both Jeswin Aldrin and Ankita Dhyani were outside the Road to Paris rankings qualification bracket when the initial list was published by World Athletics last Tuesday.
However, following multiple withdrawals including that of Indian long jumper Murali Sreeshankar, who had to pull out of Paris 2024 due to an injury despite breaching the direct entry standard, Aldrin and Ankita have now made the cut.
Long jump national record holder Aldrin occupies the 31st rank in men’s long jump with the top 32 athletes making it to Paris. Meanwhile, Ankita is ranked 42nd in women’s 5000m, the cutoff rank in that event.
Ankita will join compatriot Parul Chaudhary, ranked 29th, in the same event at the upcoming Summer Games. Parul is the national record holder in women’s 5000m having clocked 15:10.35 at the Track Festival in California last year.
Ankita Dhyani, meanwhile, has a personal best of 15:28.08 which she achieved at the Track Fest in California earlier this year. She also won the gold medal at the Inter-State Athletics Championships with 16:10.31 last month.
Meanwhile, Aldrin posted an 8.42m men’s long jump national record at the Indian Open Jumps Competition in 2023, as per an official release by Olympics.com.
He hasn’t been able to breach the 8m mark so far this season and has a season’s best of 7.99m which helped him win the Federation Cup title.
Aldrin also won the silver medal at the Inter-State Athletics Championships with 7.75m.
The initial list of Indian athletes for Paris 2024 included 28 names, headlined by reigning Olympic and world champion Neeraj Chopra. Track and field events at the Paris Olympics are scheduled between August 1 and 11.