"Avoiding aggravation of groin injury" - Asian shot put champion Tajinderpal Singh Toor pulls out of Worlds, to focus on Hangzhou Asian Games

Indian Olympian Tajinderpal Singh Toor has pulled out of the upcoming Budapest World Athletics Championships as he is yet to recover from a groin niggle sustained last month at the Asian Championships in Bangkok.

“I’m skipping global competition to avoid aggravation of groin injury,” the Asian champion in shot put told Sportskeeda over the phone from his training base in Patiala.

The World Athletics Championships is scheduled to be held in Budapest, Hungary, from August 19 to 27. The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) announced a 28-member team on Tuesday, but Toor's name was missing.

Groin pain spoiled Toor's chances to showcase his potential at the 2022 Eugene World Athletics Championships held in the USA. He pulled his groin during the warm-up session and sat out on the bench. The 28-year-old missed the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games due to a minor niggle.

The 2018 Jakarta Asian Games champion started his 2023 season on a promising note by dominating domestic competitions.

But three days before the July 12 to 16 Asian Athletics Championships in Bangkok, Toor injured his groin during a practice session. The niggle however, didn’t hurt him too much during the main competition and he managed to win gold.

According to the Punjab thrower, he is keeping himself fit, but isn’t executing full circle throws in practice to avoid further damage to the injured leg.

“I’m comfortable during standing throws and weight training sessions, but not taking chances to excute proper throws,” he explained.

Toor said he should be fully fit to defend his shot put title at the Hangzhou Asian Games, starting September 23 in China.

“There is more than a month to polish skills for the continental games. Hopefully I should be fit enough to compete at that level,” he said.

Meanwhile, Olympian Priyanka Goswami (20km race walk), middle distance runner (KM Chanda) and decathlete Tejaswin Shankar have also pulled out of the World Athletics Championships for different reasons.

Team:

Women: Parul Chaudhary (3000m steeplechase), Shaili Singh (long jump), Annu Rani (javelin), Jyothi Yarraji (100mh), Bhawna Jat (20km race walk).

Men: Krishan Kumar (800m), Ajay Kumar Saroj (1500m), Santhosh Kumar (400mh), Avinash Sable (3000m steeplechase), Sarvesh Anil Kushare (high jump), Jeswin Aldrin, Murali Sreeshankar (long jump), Praveen Chithravel, Abdulla Aboobacker, Eldhouse Paul (triple jump), Neeraj Chopra, DP Manu, Kishore Kumar Jena (javelin), Akashdeep Singh, Vikash Singh, Paramjeet Singh (20km race walk), Ram Baboo (35km race walk).

Men’s 4x400m relay (Amoj, Jacob, Muhammed Anas, Muhammed Ajmal, Rajesh Ramesh, Arul Rajalingam, Mijo Chacko Kurian).