SUSHIL AXED FROM LATEST TOPS LIST
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 four-year 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 medalist specific to each event, performance of Indian athletes in recent years and feedback from stakeholders were taken into account.
In athletics, Neeraj Chopra and Hima Das lead a roster of 10 athletes in TOPS. Steeplechaser Avinash Sable will be supported till the 2019 World Championships. Asian Games-winning triple jumper Arpinder Singh is a new inclusion. The performances of five more athletes will be reviewed after the Asian Championships in 2019.
They are Swapna Barman, fellow Asian Games winner Manjit Singh (800m and 1500m), high jumper Tejaswin Shankar, Gavit Murali (10,000m) and Beant Singh (800m).