Paris 2024 | 20 athletes added to TOPS core group, total moves to 148

12/15/2021

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The Misson Olympics Cell (MOC) of the sports ministry has taken a decision to induct 20 more sportspersons under the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS), taking the total number to 148. These athletes will be provided support by the Sports Authority of India till the next Olympics at Paris 2024.

This was the first instance where the MOC met after the Tokyo Olympics, where India went on to win seven medals, including gold in athletics. A number of athletes were identified under cycling, shooting, swimming, table tennis, weightlifting and wrestling. Apart from that, a few notable names have been excluded from the list, like Apurvi Chandela, Tejaswini Sawant, Mairaj Ahmad Khan and wrestler Seema Bisla.

All of them had participated in Tokyo 2020 but had failed to impress. Meanwhile, medalists Mirabai Chanu, Ravi Kumar Dahiya and Bajrang Punia will continue to be part of the TOPS. Sports like archery, athletics, badminton, boxing, equestrian, fencing, golf, gymnastics, judo, rowing and tennis will also be discussed next month.

Seven athletes have also been inducted in the TOPS Development Group, from the Khelo India Scheme.

Athletes under TOPS

Cycling

Esow Alben, Keithellakpam Jemsh Singh, Laitonjam Ronaldo Y Rojit Singh and E David Beckham

Sailing

Vishnu Saravanan, Varun Thakkar, KC Ganapathy and Nethra Kumanan

Shooting

Divyansh Singh Panwar, Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar, Saurabh Chaudhary, Abhishek Verma, Elavenil Valarivan, Anjum Moudgil, Manu Bhaker, Rahi Sarnobat and Vijayveer Sidhu

Development Group: Yasahwini Deswal, Chinki Yadav, Niraj Kumar, Sartaj Singh Tiwana, Dhanush Srikanth, Shahu Tushar Mane, Hriday Hazarika, Rudrankksh Balasaheb Patil, Parth Makhija, Anish Bhanwala, Adarsh Singh, Udayveer Sidhu, Sarabjot Singh, Naveen, Shiva Narwal, Kynan Chenai, Lakshay Sheoran, Vivaan Kapoor, Gurjoat Singh, N Gaayathri, Sunidhi Chauhan, Nishchal, Ayushi Podder, Shreya Agarwal, Shriyanka Sadarangi, Zeena Khitta, Abhindnya Ashok Patil, Tejaswini, Esha Singh, Rhythm Sangwan, Kirti Gupta, Manisha Kheer, Darshana Rathore, Kartikki Singh Shaktawat, Areeba Khan; Swapnil Suresh Kusale, Arjun Babuta, Anantjeet Singh Naruka and Nisha Kanwar

Swimming

Sajan Prakash and Srihari Nataraj

Table Tennis

Sharath Kamal, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, Manika Batra, Sutirtha Mukherjee, Harmeet Desai and Archana Kamath

Development Group: Manav Thakkar, Manush Shah, Ayikha Mukherjee, Payas Jain, SFR Snehit, Swastika Ghosh, Diya Chitale, Suhana Saini and Sreeja Akula

Weightlifting

Jeremy Lalrinnunga and Mirabai Chanu

Development Group: Achinta Sheuli, Soumya Sunil Dalvi, Garud Harshada Sharad, Kolli Varalakshmi Pavani Kumari, Mangkhya Boni, R Arockiya Alish, Sanket Sargar, Gogoi Sidhanta, Charu Pesi, Markio Tario, Sorkhaibam Bindyarani Devi, N Tomchou Meetei, Niraj Pradhan, Akanksha Vyavahare, Shivani Yadav, Kajol Sargar, Jyoti Yadav, Komal Kohar, Sarika Shingare and Ajay Singh

Wrestling

Ravi Kumar Dahiya, Bajrang Punia, Deepak Punia, Vinesh Phogat, Anshu Malik and Sonam Malik

Development Group: Sunil Kumar, Ravi, Ravinder, Gourav Baliyan, Sajan, Sanju Devi, Aman, Aman, Rohit, Yash Tushir, Sandeep Singh, Deepak, Anirudh Kumar, Arjun Halakurki, Sandeep, Ashu, Hanni Kumari, Sarita, Nisha, Bhateri and Bipasha

Para Sports

Archery: Harvinder Singh

Athletics: T Mariyappan, Sharad Kumar, Praveen Kumar, Sandeep Chaudhary, Sumit Antil, Sundar Singh Gurjar, Amit Saroha, Devendra Jhajharia, Nishad Kumar, Navdeep and Yogesh Kathunia

Badminton: Suhas Yathiraj, Krishna Nagar, Pramod Bhagat, Manoj Sarkar, Tarun Dhillon and Parul Parmar

Shooting: Avani Lekhara, Manish Narwal and Singhraj Adana

Swimming: Suyash Jadhav

Table Tennis: Bhavina Patel