In a first, men’s hockey team gets TOPS backing

NEWDELHI: In a departure from the norm, the Mission Olympic Cell on Wednesday included the entire Indian men’s hockey team in TOPS (Target Olympic Podium Scheme), rewarding the players for their silver medal-winning performance at the Champions Trophy. Athletes from different sports have been included in the scheme individually but it is the first instance that an entire team has been made beneficiary of the scheme.

Each of the 18 members of the team will get a monthly allowance of ~50,000. Among the other decisions taken, double Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar has been sanctioned ~6.62 lakh for his ongoing training stint in Georgia.

PAK TEAM CLEARED

NEWDELHI:Decks were on Wednesday cleared for participation of Pakistani grapplers at the Asian Junior Championship after Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) agreed to give an undertaking that the movement of the contingent from the neighbouring nation will be restricted to the competition venue.

“We got a call from a home ministry official that wrestlers from Pakistan can come to India. They will be granted visas,” WFI assistant secretary Vinod Tomar said. “We have to ensure that Pakistani wrestlers do not go anywhere except the hotel and the venue,” Tomar added.

SPECIAL BHARAT TEAM

NEW DELHI: A Special Olympics Bharat women’s football team, which has six players with intellectual disability and five mainstream athletes, will represent India at the Special Olympics Unified Cup to be held in Chicago from July 17-20. The five-day tournament is being organised to mark the 50th Anniversary of Special Olympics.

The tournament will feature 24 teams (16 male and 8 female) including India, Brazil, Canada,United States and Uruguay.