As per the governing body
World Athletics (WA), a NOC was allowed to enter up to three qualified athletes in each individual event and one qualified relay team if the Olympic
Qualifying Standards (OQS) had been met during the qualifying period at the events approved by WA. The remaining places are allocated based on the World Athletics Rankings which were derived from the average of the best five results for an athlete over the designated qualifying period, weighted by the importance of the meet. The qualification window for the marathon races was from 1 November 2022 to 30 April 2024; for the 10,000 metres, combined events (heptathlon and decathlon), racewalks, and relays from 31 December 2022 to 30 June 2024; and for the remaining events on the program from 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024. Each NOC was allowed five athletes for the relay events as provided by the qualification system. India achieved six quotas for track events, five for road events, ten for field events apart from two relay teams.
Murali Sreeshankar, who had secured a quota for the
Men's Long Jump after recording a jump of 8.37m at the
2023 Asian Athletics Championships in
Bangkok, withdrew from the games due to an injury.
Abha Khatua qualified for the
women's shot put event but was left out of the final contingent for unknown reasons. The final Indian contingent for the Games consisted of 28 athletes including 23 track and field athletes competing in 16 disciplines. ;Track events became the first Indian athlete to qualify for the final of
men's 3000 m steeplechase event.
Parul Chaudhary recorded her season's best times in
Women's 3000 m steeplechase and
Women's 5000 m events, however, she failed to make it to the finals of either event. In the
women's 400 m,
Kiran Pahal finished seventh in her heat and then last in the
repechage round, therefore failing to qualify for the final.
Jyothi Yarraji, who became the first Indian sprinter to compete in the
women's 100 m hurdles at Olympics, finished seventh in her heat with a time of 13.16 seconds, nearly half a second off her best of 12.78. She finished 35th overall amongst the 40 runners in the competition and therefore failed to qualify directly for the final. In the repechage round, she finished fourth with a similar time of 13.17 and failed to qualify for the final.
Avinash Sable finished fifth in the
men's 3000 m steeplechase qualification heat to qualify for the final, becoming the first Indian athlete to qualify for the final of this event. In the final, he started well and led the pack in the first lap. But as the race progressed, he fell back out of the medal places. Eventually, he registered an 11th-place finish in the final classification with a time of 8:14.18, nearly five seconds off from his national record mark of 8:09.91. ;Road events ;Field events , who won India's first individual gold medal in the
athletics in 2020, won a silver in the
men's javelin throw event.|alt=Neeraj Chopra with the gold medal In the qualification for the men's javelin throw event, reigning champion Neeraj Chopra recorded a season's best of 89.34 m in his first throw to top the table. He secured a direct entry to the finals as the mark was well above the direct qualification standard set at 84 m. In the same event,
Kishore Jena recorded a best throw of 80.73 m but failed to qualify and had to exit. In the final, he recorded his only legitimate throw of 89.45 m in the second attempt. The mark was enough to secure only a silver medal behind
Pakistan's
Arshad Nadeem, who secured the gold with an Olympic record throw of 92.97 m. In the other field events, Asian champion
Tajinderpal Singh Toor threw a best of 18.05 m, way below his best of 21.77 m in the
men's shot put event. He finished 29th amongst the 31 athletes and failed to qualify for the finals.
Jeswin Aldrin fouled his first two jumps before setting a low 7.61 m in the
men's long jump event to finish 26th and failed to make it to the finals. In the
men's high jump,
Sarvesh Kushare finished 13th in his group with a jump of 2.15 m and failed to make it out of the qualification stage. Kushare, whose best is 2.25 m, failed to clear a lower mark of 2.20 m in three attempts. In the
women's javelin throw event,
Asian Games champion
Annu Rani finished 15th in Group A and failed to qualify for the final. She had a best throw of 55.81 m, way below her national record mark of 63.82 m and finished 20th amongst a field of 23 athletes. In the
men's triple jump,
Abdulla Aboobacker and
Praveen Chithravel finished 21st and 26th respectively in the qualification rounds and failed to make it to the finals. Both the jumpers who had a best personal mark of over 17 m, jumped way below their personal bests, with Aboobacker recording a best jump of 16.49 m and Chithravel recording 16.25 m. == Badminton ==