The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports on Wednesday approved a 768-member Indian contingent for the 20th Asian Games set to be held in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, from September 19 to October 4.
The contingent comprises 503 athletes (269 men and 234 women) along with 246 team officials and support staff and 19 IOA contingent staff. The Indian team will compete across 36 disciplines at the continental showpiece.
Athletics will have the biggest contingent at 110 with 43 female, 36 male athletes and 21 support staffs followed by hockey (57) , cricket (50), and shooting (47).
The approval also includes 11 additional sportspersons to former list of 492, which includes 5 from Athletics – Kiran Pahal, Asha Ilango, Sindhushree Ganesha, Sanya Yadav and Praveen Kumar with Varun Sanyal being in mixed martial arts, Kishore Kumar , Sivraj, Kamali , Sugar Shanti in surfing.
The approved support group includes coaches, chief and deputy chief coaches, physiotherapists, medical personnel, psychologists, masseurs and masseuses, analysts, team managers and other technical experts.
Indian Weightlifting Federation president Sahadev Yadav will be the Chef de Mission, accompanied by table tennis star Sharath Kamal, former sprinter Lijo David Thottan, Alaknanda Ashok and former rifle shooter Anjali Bhagwat as Deputy Chefs de Mission.
Among the notable names in the approved list are Dutch coach Sjoerd Marijne, men’s team coach Craig Fulton and Strength and Wayne Lombard has been named among the hockey support staff.
The notable absentees include India men’s cricket head coach Gautam Gambhir, who is not part of contingent. However, the one-third coaching staff limit has been relaxed for cricket, with 20 support staff approved for 30 athletes contingent, including head coaches VVS Laxman and Amol Mazumder alongside support staff, five medical staff members and one team manager.
Pole vault coach Ghanashyam Yadav, who coaches National Record holder Dev Meena and Kuldeep Yadav, is also missing from the list. Meanwhile, Neeraj Chopra, who has opted out of the Asian Games due to an ankle ligament tear, will still have his coach Jai Chaudhary and physiotherapist Ishaan Marwaha included in the proposed list.
The Ministry, in the release, has also directed the Indian Olympic Association to ensure adequate availability of female support staff, including doctors, physiotherapists and masseuses, for female athletes in disciplines where such personnel are not already included in the discipline-wise contingent.
The government has sanctioned the participation at cost to the government, with expenditure to be borne by the Sports Authority of India through funds under the relevant assistance scheme for National Sports Federations.
The Indian Olympic Association has also been instructed to provide travel plans to the Indian Embassy in Tokyo and the event organisers. Following the Games, a detailed report on India’s performance, achievements and photographs are to be submitted to the Sports Ministry within 30 days of the contingent’s return.
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