Olympic champion javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra will once again lift India's campaign at the World Athletics Championships from August 19 in Budapest, Hungary, where the country will field a 28-member squad.
Surprisingly, the sports ministry announced the team instead of the Athletics Federation of India (AFI), which later announced that most of the participating athletes had already arrived in Hungary for acclimatization.
Chopra, the reigning Diamond League champion, is targeting a gold medal in Budapest after winning silver in 2022 in Eugene, USA. He has won two Diamond League matches this season - in Doha on May 5 and in Lausanne on June 30.
The 25-year-old, who missed three major matches between the two matches due to muscle strain, is currently training in Magglingen, Switzerland. He recorded the best throw of the season of 88.67 meters in Doha, which is the third-longest throw of the season.
Meanwhile, Asian record holder shot putter Tajinderpal Singh Toor retired from 19-27. from the exhibition in August, recovering from a groin injury sustained at the Asian Championships in July. National record holder high jumper Tejaswin Shankar, 800m runner KM Chanda, and 20km runner Priyanka Goswami also decided to skip the World Championships as they wanted to focus on the Asian Games in Hangzhou, China.