Unprecedented 6 women in AFI Athletes Commission; Neeraj among 3 male members

Long-jump great Anju Bobby George was on Wednesday named chairperson of the Athletics Federation of India's nine-strong athletes commission that features six women with javelin throw star Neeraj Chopra being its most prominent male member.

The other women in the new panel are runner Jyotirmoyee Sikdar, discus thrower Krishna Poonia, hurdler MD Valsamma, steeplechaser Sudha Singh and runner Sunita Rani. George, a 2003 world championships bronze-winner, is also a senior vice president in the AFI.

All of them are retired and their induction is a noteworthy milestone in the AFI's quest for gender parity in its set-up. The previous commission featured four women.

The commission was unveiled on Wednesday after the elections held in October last year.

Two-time Olympic medal-winning Neeraj Chopra is one of the four nominated members after consultations by the AFI's executive council.

The other two male members of the commission are 3000m steeplechaser Avinash Sable and newly-elected AFI president Bahadur Singh Sagoo, a shot put gold medal winner at 2002 Asian Games. Sagoo was the chairman of the previous commission.

Outgoing AFI treasurer Madhu Kant Pathak, who was the returning officer for the elections, said the polls were held after following due process.

"Election notification was issued and other rules and regulations were followed. Five members were elected.

"Later, after consultation with the executive council, four members including Neeraj and Sable were added as Athletes Commission member. Both Neeraj and Sable initially said that they will not be able to give much time as they are active athletes but they accepted," said Pathak.

Sumariwalla made ex-officio member

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Outgoing AFI President Adille Sumariwalla will continue to be a part of the executive council as an ex-officio member as he is a part of the World Athletics Council.

The 67-year-old Sumariwalla, who served as AFI president for three consecutive terms from 2012, is currently an executive board member of World Athletics -- the international governing body of the sport.

"We amended the AFI constitution last year to the effect that any person who is in the World Athletics council will be an ex-officio member of the AFI executive council," AFI Planning Commission Chairman Lalit Bhanot announced on the concluding day of the Annual General Body Meeting here.

On Tuesday, Sumariwalla had insisted that he is not going anywhere and will be around to guide the new office-bearers of the AFI and act as the body's spokesperson too.

On Wednesday, Sagoo announced that Sumariwalla will also be the chairman of the committee which will liaise with the government as well as international bodies. In addition, he will be a member of the Ethics Commission of the AFI.

Domestic schedule

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In another decision, Indian athletics' first major national senior championships of the season -- the Federation Cup -- will be held in Kozhikode, Kerala, from April 21-24

Haryana's Panchkula was to host the event but expressed its inability to do so as it had conducted the National Inter-State Championships in June last year.

This year's National Inter-State Senior Championships will be held from August 20 to 24 in Chennai, as proposed in the tentative calendar.

National Open Championships, earlier proposed to be held in Pune or Bengaluru, will now be staged in Ranchi from September 27 to 30.