Heptathlete Nandini Agasara Out Of World Champions Due To Injury, Clarifies Adille Sumariwalla

Last Updated:September 01, 2025, 00:04 IST

Agasara qualified for the spectacle but had to withdraw as she had not yet completely recovered from an elbow injury she sustained at the Asian Championship in May.

Nandini Agasara. (X)

Athletics Federation of India explained that Asian champion heptathlete Nandini Agasara was not included in the 19-member contingent for the World Championships in Tokyo next month month’s despite qualifying for the showpiece due to a lack of fitness and not any other issue, on Sunday.

Agasara qualified for the spectacle but pulled out as she had not yet completely recovered from the elbow injury which she had sustained at the Asian Championship in May, where she won gold.

“First of all, let me make one thing very clear. There was a protest made by a fellow athlete at the Asian Games in 2023 in Hangzhou. But Nandini was cleared by World Athletics," AFI spokesperson Adille Sumariwalla said referring to Swapna Barman’s allegations after finishing fourth, behind Agasara in Hangzhou.

“Number two, the gene test has just been done for all athletes who have qualified (for World Championships). And the results will go directly to World Athletics and World Athletics pays for that. We do not have any such result," he added.

World Athletics recently instructed all member countries to conduct Sex-determining Region Y, SRY, gene tests for athletes competing in the Tokyo event. This test is primarily used to identify the presence or absence of the SRY gene, which is crucial for male sex determination during fetal development.

“Thirdly, this is a sensitive issue and cannot be discussed in public. There are privacy rules of World Athletics," the former AFI chief said when asked on speculation about Nandini’s pulling out.

The World Athletics Vice President, Sumariwalla, slammed athletes for refusing to take on extra workload and the coaches who encourages the practice.

“We are not at that level, except maybe 2 or 3 who could get a medal. The rest should use the championships to do their personal best, as an experience for next big championship," Sumariwalla said.

“But you can’t go there and run 30% below your best. That’s not acceptable. If you perform your best, we are happy. If that can get you a medal, so be it."

“The problem is we were completely under-trained on the load. Our athletes were taking load of 100-120km a week. The load has now been increased to 280km."

“They will have to go over 300km if they have to compete with the best in the world," he continued.

“With the Indian coaches, they were trying to save them and I don’t know for what they were trying to save them. They (the athletes) were never able to perform. So that is the story of middle and long distance."

Sumariwalla also opened up on the structural changes the federation has undertaken to address the issues in an attempt to stramline the process further.

“Some of our athletes were all one race athletes. When the coach tried to make them two race or three race athletes, they didn’t want to take the load.

“If you see Vishal TK (who recently broke the men’s 400m race), every race he has improved. And how many races has he run? He has run 16 races. Our athletes, Indian coaches don’t want to make their athletes run races."

Sumariwalla also touched upon ace India javelin throw athlete Neeraj Chopra’s form, following the double-Olympic medallist’s second place fiish at the Diamond League Final.

“He said he had a little timing issue. He was moving to one side also. He rued Sable was capable of winning a 3000m steeplechase medal in the 2022 World Championships in Eugene, USA, but missed out as he “did not listen to his coach".

“He is a very technically sound athlete. He has slightly made adjustments from what I understand in his approach and throw. And once that timing is corrected, he is going to be absolutely fine back to throwing 90m."

“Our national championships are faster than that race. Now, was there a disappointment? Absolutely.

“Because, Sable was capable of a medal there had he run his race, had he listened to his coach. Sometimes you don’t listen to your coach. The coach had given him splits of each 1000m.

“The race went slow, so he also started running slow, thinking he can kick at the end. He doesn’t have that speed to kick at the end. So, if you can’t kick at the end, you lose."

He said an internal discussion has been going on in the AFI whether to pick in future those athletes who qualified for major events like the world championships at the bottom of the pack.

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First Published:

August 31, 2025, 23:55 IST

News sports Heptathlete Nandini Agasara Out Of World Champions Due To Injury, Clarifies Adille Sumariwalla

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