With an eye on 2024 and 2028 Olympics, the Target Olympic Podium Scheme lists have been finalised. As reported by this newspaper, it has been pruned with some of the top athletes missing out. In the core group, the number has come down to 96 from 105 with 38 para sports athletes making the bulk of the list. There were about 23 para athletes in the list last time. Among top Olympic disciplines, there are nine names in shooting, eight in athletics, six each in boxing, badminton and wrestling.
Athletics is one sport in which the numbers have come down to just eight from 23. Names of sprinter Dutee Chand, discus thrower Seema Punia and the 4x400m men's and women's teams as well as the 4x100m relay names have been dropped. The 4x400m women's team is in shambles while the 4x400m men's team had put up a disappointing show during the last World Championships.
Among the throwers, Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra, national record holder in javelin, Annu Rani, and Tajinder Pal Singh Toor (shot putter) are on the list. Commonwealth Games silver medallists Avinash Sable (in 3000m steeplechase) and M Sreeshankar (long jump), along with sprinter Hima Das and race walkers Priyanka Goswami and Sandeep Kumar, complete the list. Interestingly, last junior World Championships silver medallist long jumper, Shaili Singh, has been shifted to the development group.
Veteran Rohan Bopanna and Sania Mirza, who postponed her retirement, are among the four in the core group. In table tennis, 40-year-old A Sharath Kamal is sanctioned as men's singles player, while G Sathiyan and Manika Batra are listed as mixed-doubles. London Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal is not part of the core list. Women's doubles pair of N Sikki Reddy and Ashwini Ponnappa, too, have been dropped.
It is understood that in the last Mission Olympic Cell meeting, the members wanted to focus on select athletes and disciplines for the 2024 Paris Olympics with an eye on the next year's postponed Asian Games as well. In boxing, Commonwealth Games gold medallist Nikhat Zareen has been shifted to core from the development group. Srihari Natarj is the lone swimmer in the core group. Weightlifters Mirabai Chanu and Jeremy Lalrinnunga are in Core. Mairaj Ahmad Khan, who became the first skeet shooter to win a medal at the World Cup recently, doesn't figure in any of the two lists.The development group,too, has been pruned to 182 from 244.