National record holder and Asian Games champion Preeja Sreedharan and Asian Games silver medallist Kavita Raut gave up their chase of the elusive qualification standard for the London Olympics at an international meeting in Santhia, Italy, on Saturday.
Running the 10,000 metres with a target time of 31:45.00 if both needed to make it to the Olympics, the Indian athletes were, according to information received by the Athletics Federation of India (AFI), within the pace required at the half-way stage.
However, they lagged behind by the 6000-metre mark and gave up the chase. The AFI reported that both were devastated by their failure to make it.
The two athletes had been training in a special high-altitude camp at Eldoret, Kenya, in preparation for the Olympics since last December, but had not given any indication of form when they started the summer season in Europe.
Meanwhile, shot putter Om Prakash Singh did not compete in the IAAF World Challenge meet in Madrid on Saturday as scheduled as he failed to make the trip from Szombathely, Hungary.
With the qualification deadline closing on Sunday, the AFI stated that 14 athletes had made the grade for London, the largest batch in individual events since qualification standards were introduced for Olympics in 2004.
The AFI selection committee will meet on Monday to formally approve the squad.
Qualified athletes: Men: Ram Singh Yadav (marathon), Renjith Maheswary (triple jump), Om Prakash Singh (shot put), Vikas Gowda (discus); Gurmeet Singh, Baljinder Singh and K.T. Irfan (20km walk) and Basanta Bahadur Rana (50km walk).
Women: Tintu Luka (800m), Sudha Singh (3000m steeplechase), Sahana Kumari (high jump), Mayookha Johny (triple jump) and Krishna Poonia and Seema Antil (discus).
