New Delhi, Feb. 3 -- The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) has announced stringent qualification standards for the 2026 Commonwealth Games (CWG) in Glasgow, with athletes in as many as 17 events needing to either break or match existing national records to be considered for selection.

The CWG 2026, scheduled from July 23 to August 2 in Scotland, will feature a scaled-down athletics programme, restricting each country to a maximum of 32 athletes, including no more than 16 women. In response, AFI has raised the performance bar significantly to ensure a highly competitive Indian contingent, according to olympics.com.

Among the men's events, athletes will be required to surpass national records in the 100m, 400m, 1500m, 110m hurdles and h...