New Delhi: The sports ministry has redrawn the list of core and developmental groups for the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) and has also set a one-year evaluation period of performances to end the biennial assessment system.
At Mission Olympic Cell’s 153rd meeting, the sports secretary Sujata Chaturvedi felt a more robust appraisal process is required for promotion and demotion from the TOPS list in order to reward consistent performers and demote underwhelming performers.
A total of 179 athletes are in TOPS core group that comprises established performers while its developmental list has 130 players who have potential to succeed on the global scale.
The annual assessment would be put in place to assist those who would qualified for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
Sunny days ahead for Indian coaches?
The ministry is also planning to nudge retired players into taking coaching gigs within the country through lucrative incentives though the proposal is yet to take any shape of form.
“The MOC felt only a handful of top Indian players have been hired as coaches and their salaries did not match their achievements,” a source told PTI.
Recent developments of former shuttler Anup Sridhar migrating to be the coach of Singapore among others have forced the ministry to take note of the situation.
Apart from this, TOPS athletes would receive expenses for an additional 60 days of domestic and international training on top of their annual schedule drawn up by national sports federations.
Sub-committees to monitor 12 Olympic disciplines – athletics, archery, badminton, boxing, hockey, rowing, shooting, table tennis, squash, weightlifting, wrestling and swimming – were formed.
Included in these committees were MM Somaya (hockey), Adille Sumariwala (athletics), Gopichand (badminton), Cyrus Poncha (squash), Sunil Chhetri (football), Aparna Popat (badminton), Dr Satyapal Singh (para-athletics), Anjali Bhagwat (shooting), Gagan Narang (shooting), and Arjun Halappa (hockey).
The TOPS core group has 179 athletes while its developmental list has 130 players. Other Sports Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
