Ministry, NSF review meet on Asiad performance rescheduled
The Sports Ministry’s one-day meet with National Sports Federations to review the country’s performance in the recently concluded Asian Games has been rescheduled by a couple of days to October 15.
The meeting was originally planned for October 13 but Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, who will chair the proceedings, is currently in Ahmedabad for the BRICS Traditional and Indigenous Sports Demonstration Games. “The meeting will be on October 15 now,” a ministry source said.
The focus of the brainstorming session is going to be on the underwhelming show of “experienced” athletes, especially in badminton, shooting and athletics.
India won 85 medals, including 21 gold, in the Aichi-Nagoya Games that ended on October 4, a significantly lower count than the record haul of 106 medals achieved in the previous edition in Hangzhou.
Eleven of India’s 21 gold medals in Aichi-Nagoya came on the last two days of the competition, with archers, the men’s and women’s hockey teams, boxers and women golfers being the star performers.
In contrast, badminton yielded one men’s team bronze, while the performance of shooters, especially in pistol competition, was relatively poor, with double Olympic medallist Manu Bhaker ending medal-less. Among the shuttlers, the defending champion men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty was knocked out in the opening round itself. The seasoned P V Sindhu also crashed out early. In athletics, the gold count was down from six to one and injuries to key stars such as hurdler Jyothi Yarraji and triple jumper Praveen Chithravel were stunningly revealed during the competition.
Even steeplechaser Avinash Sable did not start in the 5000m event, raising concerns about his fitness levels at the Games. He had been initially ruled out of the Games but was included in the squad following a fitness assessment by Athletics Federation of India.
