Sports Ministry adds 11 athletes to expand India’s Asian Games contingent to 768 members
New Delhi, Sep 3 (IANS/WISHAVWARTA) The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports on Thursday added another 11 athletes to the 492-athlete list for the Asian Games as the Indian contingent for the Aichi-Nagoya Games was expanded to 768 members.
The Ministry added athletes across athletics, mixed martial arts and surfing for the Games. Surfing is also making its debut at the Asian Games as four athletes – Kishore Kumar, Sivaraj, Kamali and Sugar Shanti – will represent India in the sport. MMA is also marking its debut at the Games.
Meanwhile, six in athletics – Praveen Kumar, Harita Bhadra, Kiran Pahal, Asha Ilango, Sindhushree Ganesha and Sanya Yadav have been added, while Varun Sanyal will represent India in mixed martial arts as per the updated list from the Ministry.
The expanded list now sees India’s Asiad contingent extend to 768 members, with 503 athletes (269 male and 234 female). 246 team officials/supporting staff and 19 contingent staff are also part of the Indian roster set to compete across 36 disciplines in the continental showpiece.
The Ministry has also confirmed the head of the Centre of Excellence to be the head coach of the Indian men’s side for the cricket event. Sunil Joshi, Hrishikesh Kanitkar and Subhadeep Ghosh will join Laxman, while Amol Muzumdar will spearhead the women’s team for the Asiad. Muzumdar will have Aavishkar Salvi as the bowling coach and Munish Bali as the fielding coach in his coaching staff.
Earlier in the day, the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) also finalised the 77-member squads for athletics for the Asiad. Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Yashvir Singh has replaced the 2022 Asian Games gold medallist Neeraj Chopra in the list after Chopra was ruled out of the season due to an injury.
Two-time Olympic medallist Chopra was initially named to the 73-member Indian athletics team for the Games but will no longer defend the titles he won in Jakarta 2018 and Hangzhou 2023. Rohit Yadav is the other Indian selected for the men’s javelin throw.
India’s athletics contingent includes 15 returning Asian Games champions and medallists. Avinash Sable, Tajinderpal Singh Toor, Parul Chaudhary and Annu Rani are the four individual champions from Hangzhou 2023 who remain in the squad and will have the chance to defend their titles in Japan.
Meanwhile, men’s 110m hurdler Tejas Shirse, who was intially selected for the 110m hurdles despite sustaining two stress fractures in his left foot during CWG in Glagow, has also been omitted from the team. Abhishek Pal, who has landed in a doping controversy after being served a notice by the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) over an apparent violation, was dropped out of the squad.
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