Over 500 cleared for Asian Games

NEW DELHI: The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) has cleared 514 athletes for the upcoming Asian Games but the contingent is likely to be smaller than the last edition in Incheon, where 541 players competed. The IOA is expected to release the list on Monday but there is a possibility that a few more names could be added to the list.

“We have approved approximately 514 athletes and we are working out the final list,” an IOA official told PTI.

The IOA had fixed June 30 deadline to all the National Sports Federations to send their final list.

This time, the IOA had set strict criteria to clear the country’s participants — top six performance of the last Asian Games in individual events and top eight in team events. This led to teams like football and handball to be left out.

“It’s clear the IOA lacks the vision and competence to understand that football is a global sport played by 212 countries and that the top 5 teams in Asia play in the FIFA World Cup where the level of competition is far superior to the Asian Games,” the AIFF said in a statement.

SURI, NITIN LEAD IN COMMONWEALTH CHESS

NEW DELHI: Local favourite Grandmaster Vaibhav Suri along with International Master S Nitin led the table with six points after round seven at the Commonwealth Chess Championship here on Sunday.

Vaibhav signed the peace treaty with top seed Deep Sengupta to take his tally to six points while S Nitin set aside his sixth round debacle against Vaibhav to beat national sub-junior champion Sankalp Gupta in 49 moves arrived out of French defence game.