Rs 1.3 crore fund approved for Indian athletes' training in Olympic year

Mission Olympic Cell (MOC) discussed the performance of athletes under TOPS and reviewed the financial proposals of TOPS athletes in various sports.

In athletics, equipment requirements of javelin throwers Shivpal Singh (in pic) and Rohit Yadav were approved by the Mission Olympic Cell.

The Mission Olympic Cell (MOC) of Sports Authority of India (SAI) on Thursday cleared Rs 1.3 crore for athletes’ training across seven disciplines including athletics, shooting and para-sports.

“They met earlier today for the 47th Agenda meeting where the committee discussed the performance of athletes under the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) and reviewed the financial proposals of TOPS athletes in various sports,” SAI said in a statement.

In athletics, equipment requirements of javelin throwers Rohit Yadav and Shivpal Singh were approved. MOC also cleared the requirements of shooters Miraj Ahmed Khan and Chinki Yadav.

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Financial assistance was also provided to the Cycling Federation of India (CFI) to buy new cycles and “other equipment including performance testing SRM ergometer”.

Para-archers Harvinder Singh, Vivek Chikara, Rakesh Kumar and Shyam Sundar’s request for equipment too was approved along with Vivek Chikara’s request for a new prosthesis.

Swimmer Srihari Nataraj’s request for “swimming equipment, financial assistance for the club, coach, other fee payments” was also approved.

Among other decisions, funds were cleared for participation of para-badminton players Sukant Kadam, Suhas Yathiraj, Manoj Sarkar, Pramod Bhagat, Tarun and Krishna Nagar in an international event in Spain.

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Para-javelin thrower Ajeet Singh’s proposal for customised below elbow prosthesis was also approved.

The MOC also decided to move recurve archer Atul Verma from the TOPS core group to the developmental group. Based on their current form and performance, wrestlers Sandeep Tomar and Utkarsh Kale were dropped from the TOP Scheme.