Top athletes including Anju Bobby George and K M Beenamol will not be seen in action in the tenth Federation Cup athletics championships beginning at New Delhi on Tuesday.
The other top stars who will miss the event were discus throwers Anil Kumar and Neelam Jaswant Singh and high jumper Bobby Aloysius.
"Anil, Neelam and Bobby are training abroad while Anju has decided to start competing from April. Earlier she wanted to begin with the World Indoor Athletic Championships in Budapest, Hungary but now she will begin in April," Amateur Athletic Federation of India (AAFI) secretary Lalit Bhanot told reporters at New Delhi.
Beenamol will miss the action as she is recovering from a bout of fever.
Bhanot said the Indian team for the South Asian Federation (SAF) Games beginning in Islamabad at the end of this month would be chosen on the performance of athletes in the three-day meet, in which over 650 athletes representing 19 states and seven institutions are expected to participate.
"We would be sending mostly juniors with some seniors for the SAF Games," he said.
The Federation Cup would also begin the first phase of competition for Indian athletes aiming for the Athens Olympics in August.
"This time there won't be any trials to attain the qualifying marks for Olympics. Instead athletes can attain the grade in the AAFI sanctioned meets or international events," Bhanot said.
"So far two -- Anju and Neelam -- have qualified but we expect atleast 25 athletes to qualify for Athens."
This will include 18 athletes in the three relay teams (1600m men and women and 400m men), Bhanot said.
"Also we expect our athletes to make the grade in men's shot put, heptathlon, 800 men and women, 400 women and 200 women."
Other events coming up in the first phase were SAF Games and the first and second circuit meets to be held in New Delhi and Patiala on April 15 and 18 respectively.
The AAFI will also send promising athletes on an exposure trip to Europe in May-June ahead of the Olympics.
