Asian Games 2026: Defending Champions Annu Rani Out Of…

Annu Rani has been dropped from the athletics team for the 2026 Asian Games that will be played at Aichi Nagoya starting from 17^th September. She was the defending champion of the previous edition of 2022, played in Hangzhou. 

Annu was taking part in the Indian Athletics Series Final event at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, New Delhi, last Thursday. The qualification mark for the Asian Games 2026 was 57.62, but the experienced Annu Rani managed to throw 57.50, which meant that she will not be able to take part in this year’s Asian Games Javelin Throw and not be able to defend her gold medal from the last edition. 

With Neeraj Chopra ruled out of the javelin throw in the men's section, Annu Rani is also a massive blow to the Indian athletics contingent in the women's section. According to the Athletics Federation of India in the final trial, Annu Rani did not achieve the qualification mark and would not feature in the javelin throw for the upcoming Asian Games event. 

The Javelin Throw event will be held from 26^th to 28^th September 2026. Annu Rani has been struggling for form, falling short of the qualification mark by 12 cm, which is a massive blow for the Indian contingent for the Asian Games event. 

The Athletics contingent had 77 members before the AFI trimmed it to 74. Annu Rani won the gold medal in the Athletics series event with 57.50 but missed the Asian Games qualification mark by 12 cm. 

Annu Rani won a gold medal in the 2022 Indian Open Javelin Throw competition with a best effort of 63.82. After that, she performed consistently, winning a bronze medal in the 2014 Asian Games played in Incheon. Rani proved to be a consistent performer at the Asian level, keeping India’s flag flying high. 

Rani missing the 2026 Asian Games will be a void for the Indian contingent, as Neeraj Chopra is missing this year’s games due to a ligament tear. 

The focus will be on other Indian athletes to perform and help them win medals in the Asian Games 2026. Her performances in recent times have not been up to the mark, which led to Annu Rani's omission and made sure that, along with 2 more athletes, including long jumper Shanavaz and Nithiya, she will not feature in the Asian Games 2026 due to poor performances and medical reasons. 

Performance of Annu Rani in Asian Games 2022 

Annu Rani created history by becoming the first Indian women Javelin Thrower to win gold medal in Asian Games history. She registered throw of 62.92 and won historic gold medal at this event.Rani showed great fighting spirit to take gold medal in the Javelin Throw during the 2022 edition of Asian Games played in Hangzhou. Rani’s exclusion will reduce the chances of India’s medal tally along with Neeraj Chopra which is a massive blow to go past 100 medals in this year’s Asian Games. 

Here we look at the Indian Athletics contingent after exclusion of Annu Rani.

1. Animesh Khajur- 100 m, 200 m 

2. Gurvinder Singh- 100 m 

3. Rajesh Ramesh, Vishal TK- 400 m 

4. Krishan Kumar, Mohammed Afsal- 800 m

5. Gulveer Singh, Yoonus Shah- 1500 m 

6. Gulveer Singh- 1500 m, 5000 m, 10000 m 

7. Avinash Sable- 5000 m, 3000 m steeplechase

8. Yashas Palaksha, Santosh Tamilarasan- 400 m hurdles 

9. Harita Bhadra, Unnathi Bollanda-200 m 

10. Kiran Pahal, Prachi Chaudhary-400 m 

11. Gowthami Jayaraman-800 m 

12. Parul Chaudhary-1500 m, 5000 m, 3000 m steeplechase  

13. Pooja Olla- 1500 m 

14. Seema Kumari- 5000 m, 10000 m 

15. Jyothi Yarraji, Nandhini Kongan- 100 m hurdles. 

16. Anu Raghavan, Vithya Ramraj- 400 m hurdles 

17. Dharmveer Choudhary, Jay Kumar, Manu Thekkinal, Mohammed Ashfaq, Rajesh Ramesh, Vishal TK- Men’s 4x 400 m relay 

18. Abinaya Rajarajan, Sneha Gowda, Srabani Nanda, Sudeshna Shivankar, Tamana Dhankheri- Women’s 4x100 m relay 

19. Ansa Babu, Kiran Pehal, Neeru Pathak, Poovamma Machhettria, Prachi Chaudhary- Women’s 4x400m Relay 

20. Animesh Khajur, Gurvinder Singh, Pranav Gaurav, Harita Bhadra, Sneha Gowda- Mixed 4x100 m relay race 

21. Jay Kumar, Manu Thekkinal, Ansa Babu, Rashdeep Kaur- Mixed 4x400 m relay race 

22. Kartik Karkera, Sawan Barwal- Men’s Marathon 

23. Manju Rani, Priyanka Goswami- Women’s Marathon 

24. Adarsh Ram, Sarvesh Kushare- High Jump (Men’s)  

25. Murali Shreeshankar- Long Jump (Men)

26. Karthik Unnikrishnan, Praveen Chithtravel- Triple Jump (Men’s)  

27. Karanveer Singh, Tajinder Pal Singh Toor- Shot Put (Men’s) 

28. Damneet Singh, Praveen Kumar- Hammer Throw (Men’s)  

29. Rohit Yadav, Yashvir Singh- Javelin Throw (Men’s)  

30. Dev Meena, Kuldeep Kumar- Pole Vault (Men) 

31. Pooja Singh, Supriya Basavaraju- High Jump (Women) 

32. Ancy Sojan, Shali Singh- Long Jump (Women) 

33. Asha LLango, Niharika Vashisht- Triple Jump (Women)  

34. Krishnan Menon, Manpreet Kaur- Shot Put (Women)  

35. Sanya Yadav, Seema Kaliramna- Discuss Throw (Women) 

36. Anushka Yadav, Tanya Chaudhary- Hammer Throw (Women)  

37. Barainca Elangovan, Sindhushree Ganesh- Pole Vault (Women)  

38. Tejaswin Shankar, Thowfeeq Noshad- Decathlon (Men) 

39.  Anamika Kozhinjaparambil, Pooja Singh- Heptathlon (Women)