Malleswari, according to Bhatia, is based in Patiala and training hard. “Her performance is improving,” he added.

The continental competition in April will be the last opportunity for the Indian lifters, particularly the women, to book a passage to Beijing.

But in the Chiang Mai world meet, which was the first competition that Indians had participated in for Olympics qualification, Malleswari wasn’t among those selected.

THE PROBABLES

Men: G Elumalai, (Railways), K Ravi Kumar (Orissa), Santokh Kumar, Manjit Singh Lad Singh (Punjab), Pradeep Singh (Services), Sarabjit Singh (Police) and V Kumar (Tamil Nadu)

Women: M Siva Rani, K Tulasi (Andhra Pradesh), Renu Bala, T Inu Rani Channu (Assam), Karnam Malleswari (FCI), Chitra Chandra Mohan (Kerala), Ranu Mohanty (Orissa), H Shaya Devi (Manipur), A Sandhya Rani, L Monika Devi, Geeta Rani (Police), Soniya Chanu, Kavita Devi, Chanchal Yadav (Uttar Pradesh)