Rising pistol shooters Samrat Rana and Suruchi Singh, Asian gold-winning long-distance runner Gulveer Singh and world champion para-shuttler Pramod Bhagat are among eight athletes who have been added to the Target Olympic Podium Scheme’s (TOPS) Core group following a recent assessment of performances.
Badminton star H S Prannoy, former Asian gold-winning rifle shooter Divyansh Singh Panwar and wrestler Deepak Punia were among the major names dropped from the core group for failing to meet “the requisite parameters of performance”, according to a well-placed source.
The rejig of the list was undertaken at the 169th meeting of the Mission Olympic Cell (MOC), headed by TOPS CEO N S Johal, here. While Samrat became a world champion last year in both the individual and team 10m air pistol events, Suruchi too enjoyed a fantastic run on the circuit, bagging four consecutive World Cup gold medals.
Pramod, on the other hand, clinched his sixth world title earlier this year. The 37-year-old, whose left leg was disabled by polio, is a former Olympic gold-medallist and returned to competition last year after serving an 18-month suspension for the anti-doping violation of missing three consecutive tests.
Another shooter who has been added to the list is this year's Asian silver medal-winner rifle-man Niraj Kumar. Former Asian gold-winner Shiva Narwal was, however, left out of the core group that continues to be 56-strong after the most recent omissions and additions.
It was a deserved elevation from developmental to core for Gulveer after his path-breaking performances last year. He is also a national record holder in both the 5000m and 10,000m events. He had scripted history by bagging top honours in the Asian Championships last year in both the competitions.
Also elevated from developmental to core were the badminton mixed doubles duo of Tanisha Crasto and Dhruv Kapila, along with boxer Jaismine Lamboria, who won the 57kg featherweight category gold at the world championships last year.
TOPS Core athletes get an allowance of Rs 50,000. They also get US $25 per day during the period of training and competition overseas.
Boxing gets developmental push
As many as 22 boxers, 14 of them women, were added to the developmental group of the TOPS list, including World Cup gold-winners Parveen (W60kg), Arundhati (W70kg) and Hitesh Gulia (M70kg) among others.
“The idea is to create a bigger bench strength of boxers for future Olympic Games and including them in large numbers in the developmental group would be a crucial step,” an official said.
Thirteen shooters have also been added to the developmental list that is 130-strong right now. Both the core and developmental athletes are evaluated at least half-yearly to ensure that their performance and fitness levels meet the required criteria.
Also read: Archery emerges big winner in TOPS ahead of LA 2028
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