National Youth Athletics meet from June One

Bangalore, May 30 (UNI) More than 650 athletes from across the country will vie for top honours in the Fourth National Youth Athletics Championship being held here on June one and two.

Talking to newsmen here, Karnataka Athletics Association Secretary Satyanarayana said that the event would be run as selection trials to pick the National Team for the World Youth Athletics Championship to be held at Ostrava, Czech Republic from July 11 to 13.

The event would also be considered for selecting probables for Youth Commonwealth Games to be held in Pune in 2008, he added.

He said that in all 23 States including Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttaranchal, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, West Bengal besides hosts Karnataka have confirmed their participation.

While defending overall champion Kerala has fielded 46 athletes, Tamil Nadu has fielded highest number of 59 athletes.

Satyanarayana said that dope testing team has already arrived.

He said that age restriction of Under-18 would be strictly adhered to in the Meet and Age Verification Committee was already on the job.

UNI