World University Games: Jyothi Yarraji, Tejaswin Shankar and Manu Bhaker in spotlight; India withdraws wushu team

With the Asian Games in Hangzhou just two months away, the World University Games which begin at Chengdu on Friday will be closely watched. Murali Sreeshankar’s parotta sacrifice extends to 2024 Paris Olympics India has sent 227 athletes and the list includes stars like Asian sprint hurdles champion Jyothi Yarraji, Commonwealth Games bronze medallist high jumper Tejaswin Shankar, Olympians Manu Bhaker, Elavenil Valarivan and Srihari Nataraj. Multiple-round Lessons for Jyothi “The Universiade is not her main focus so anything good there is a bonus but we wanted her to have a competition with rounds prior to the World Championships and Asian Games,” said James Hillier, Jyothi’s coach at the Reliance Foundation. The athletics list also includes Asian championship 20km walk silver medallist Priyanka Goswami, javelin thrower Vikrant Malik, who produced an impressive 81.20m effort at the North East Zone varsities meet in Bhubaneswar last December but who could manage just 66.82m the recent Inter-State Nationals, star sprinter Amlan Borgohain and Under-20 Asian 1500m gold medallist Laxita Sandilea. Tejaswin, the Asian championships decathlon bronze medallist who will be doing the high jump in Chengdu, and Manu Bhaker will be India’s flagbearers at Friday’s opening ceremony.