NEW DELHI: The Amateur Athletic Federation of India (AAFI) has decided to send only women athletes for the commonwealth games to be held in Auckland (New Zealand) from January 24 to February three, 1990.
‘An AAFI press release in New Delhi said though some men athletes had qualified for the games, their coaches felt that they should concentrate on training for the Beijing Asian games next year and “no ‘useful purpose will be served by sending them to Auckland.”
According to the release, after “careful consideration” of the performance of all the promising athletes, the AAFI has decided to field P.T. Usha only in the 400 metres hurdles and 4×400 metres relay.
An open selection of the 4×400 metres relay squad will be held on January five in which all leading women athletes like Shiny Wilson, Vandana Rao, Ashwini Nachappa, K. Saramma Mercy Kuttan, Saroj Laka and Shantimol Philip are expected to take part.
Usha’s coach, O.M. Nambiar, and Pramod Jain will accompany the team as coach and manager respectively. (PTI).
Article extracted from this publication >> December 15, 1989
