Sushil Kumar dropped from TOPS list, Arpinder added
NEWDELHI: Twice Olympic medalwinning wrestler Sushil Kumar has been left out of the latest list of athletes to be funded under the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS), released by Sports Authority of India (SAI) on Thursday. The new list, released after a review of wrestling, weightlifting and athletics, also put Jakarta Asian Games heptathlon champion Swapna Barman in a separate list of athletes whose performances will be reviewed in April, 2019.
The decisions were taken at SAI’S Mission Olympic Cell (MOC) meeting, the first review after the Asian Games and the Youth Olympics.
Following a review by MOC in June, Sushil, who won gold at the Gold Coast Commonwealth
Games, was included in the list. However, he made a first round exit in the Asian Games and then opted out of the World Wrestling Championships in Budapest.
It is learnt the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) tried to push for Sushil’s inclusion given the lack of options in 74kg category. Narsingh Yadav, who would have been Sushil’s closest competitor, is serving a fouryear doping ban. However, Sushil’s poor Asian Games performance and non-show at the worlds seems to have led to his omission.
The SAI review took into account five parameters, a release said. Global performance trends in recent major events like Olympics and world championships, performances of competing athletes, high performance age of an Olympic medallist specific to each event, performance of Indian athletes in recent years and feedback from stakeholders were taken into account.
Rio Olympics bronze medallist Sakshi Malik, Vinesh Phogat and her sister Ritu, are among 10 wrestlers in the list.
In athletics, Neeraj Chopra and Hima Das lead a roster of 10 athletes to be funded under TOPS. This includes steeplechaser Avinash Sable, who will be supported till the 2019 World Championships.
Asian Games gold-winning triple jumper Arpinder Singh is a new inclusion to the list.
In addition, the performances of five more athletes will come under review after the Asian Championships in 2019. These five athletes are Barman, fellow Asiad gold winner Manjit Singh (800m and 1500m), high jumper Tejaswin Shankar, Gavit Murali (10,000m) and Beant Singh (800m).
RV Rahul and Mirabai Chanu are the two weightlifters in TOPS.
It was clarified that athletes from other sports will be reviewed and added at a later stage. SAI also announced that a group of young athletes will be supported keeping in mind the 2024 Olympics in Paris.