Mission Olympic Cell allows Paralympic medalist Devendra Jhajharia to train abroad, adds six para athletes to TOPS list

Three-time Paralympic medalist Devendra Jhajharia has been sanctioned for 38 days of his training camp abroad. The Mission Olympic Cell (MOC) during their 74th meeting gave the 40-year-old javelin thrower the approval for the camp.

Jhajharia, along with his strength and conditioning coach Lakshay Batra, will be traveling to Europe to undergo rigid training sessions at the Kuortane Olympic Training Centre in Finland.

The international training camp will cost the government approximately INR 11.5 lakhs, which includes funding for their travel, visa costs, medical insurance, training facilities charges, and boarding and lodging costs.

Jhajharia is a three-time Paralympics medalist whose career has spanned over two decades.

He bagged his first Paralympic gold during the 2004 Athens Paralympics. His second gold medal came during the 2016 Rio Paralympics and he also clinched a silver medal at the 2021 Tokyo Paralympics. Jhajharia also went on to win a silver medal at the 2014 Incheon Asian Para Games.

Mission Olympic Cell adds six para athletes to core TOPS list

During their 74th meeting, the Mission Olympic Cell added as many as six para athletes, including four para badminton players, to the core list of the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS).

Here are six para-athletes that have been added to the core list of TOPS:

Dharambir (Men's Club Throw - F51) and Someswara Rao (Men's Long Jump - T64) are from the track and field category.

Shuttlers Manasi Joshi (Badminton - SL3), Nithya Sre (Badminton - SH6), Mandeep Kaur (Badminton - SL3) and Manisha Ramdass (Badminton - SU5) were also included in the list.

Mandeep Kaur was the star of the recently-concluded 2022 Brazil Para Badminton International where team India bagged a whopping 28 medals. She clinched three medals, including two golds and one silver. She clinched one gold medal each in the SL3 women’s singles and SL3-SU5 women’s doubles categories.

In the women's singles, Kaur won 21-10, 21-5 over Brazil's Abinaecia Maria Da Silva. Meanwhile, in the women's doubles match, Mandeep, alongside Manisha Ramdass, defeated Palak Kohli/Parul Parmar with a 21-15, 21-15 scoreline.

However, Mandeep along with her mixed doubles partner, Chirag Baretha, had to settle for silver after losing to the Japanese duo of Daisuke Fujihara and Akiko Sugino.