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The Mission Olympic Cell (MOC) approved the inclusion of a significant number of international athletes in the Core and Developmental groups of the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) on Friday.
All the athletes in the TOPS will be ably supported by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports.
By approving the inclusion of 50 athletes in the TOPS Core Group and 143 athletes in the TOPS Development Group, across eight disciplines, the total count of athletes in the TOPS is now 291, including 102 in the Core Group.
Earlier, the Ministry inducted 148 athletes, including 20 new additions, into the the first list of TOPS athletes.
The notable inclusion in the Core Group is that of Shaili Singh, the 17-year-old World U20 Athletics Championships long jump silver medallist.
Athletes from as many as 13 Olympic disciplines and six Paralympic disciplines have so far been identified for support for inclusion in the TOPS, aiding their preparation for the 2024 Olympic Games.
Among the youngest of those identified for support is swimmer Riddhima Veerendra Kumar. The 14-year-old won a clutch of medals at the National Junior Championships in October and also made waves at the National Championships.
She was named among the 17 swimmers in the TOPS Development Group in addition to the two identified earlier for Core Group.
The MOC accepted a recommendation by a sub-committee that a review of the swimming list for inclusion in TOPS be undertaken after the World Championships in June next year and of the archery list after the National Ranking tournament next month.
Sports like Equestrian, Golf, Gymnastics, Judo and Tennis will be taken up for consideration for inclusion in TOPS at a later date.
Athletes selected for TOPS Core and Development Groups
The list of athletes selected for the TOPS Core and Development Groups are given below.
Archery: Core Group: Atanu Das and Deepika Kumari.
Development Group: Pravin Jadhav, Bommaravera Dhiraj, Parth Sushant Salunkhe, Aditya Choudhary, Yasdhdeep Bhoge, Divyansh Kumar Panwar, Kapish Singh, Vickey Ruhal, Neeraj Chauhan, Amit Kumar, Sudanshu Bisht, Bishal Changmai, Komalika Bari, Ankita Jadhav, Madhu Vedwan, Simranjeet Kaur, Ridhi, Deepti Kumari, Tamna, Soniya Thakur, Avni, Manjari Alone, and Tisha Punia.
Athletics: Core Group: Mohammed Anas Yahiya, Dharun Ayyasamy, Naganathan Pandi, Arokia Rajiv, Amoj Jacob, Noah Nirmal Tom, Avinash Sable, Murali Sreeshankar, Neeraj Chopra, Tajinderpal Singh Toor, Sandeep Kumar, Dutee Chand, Hima Das, Revathi Veeramani, VK Vismaya, Jisna Mathew, Subha Venkatesan, S Dhanalakshmi, Priyanka Goswami, Bhawna Jat, Shaili Singh, Kamalpreet Kaur, Seema Punia, and Annu Rani.
Development Group: Vikrant Panchal, Ayush Dabas, Kapil, Ajay Kumar Saroj, Tejaswin Shankar, Praveen Chitravel, Rohit Yadav, Sahil Silwal, Jeswin Aldrin, Muhammed Ajmal, Karanveer Singh, Yashveer Singh, Amit Khatri, AT Daneswari, Anjali Devi, Priya Mohan, Jyotika Dandi, Kaveri, R Vithya, NS Simi, PD Anjali, Sandra Babu, Ancy Sojan, and Sherin Abdul Gafoor.
Badminton: Core Group: Lakshya Sen, Kidambi Srikanth, B Sai Praneeth, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, Chirag Shetty, PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal, Sikki Reddy, and Ashwini Ponappa.
Development Group: Sankar Muthusamy, Pranav Rao Gandham, Maisnam Meiraba, K Sathish Kumar, Rohan Gurbani, Sai Charan Koya, Kiran Geroge, Priyanshu Rajwat, Ishaan Bhatnagar, P Vishnuvardhan Goud, Krishna Prasad G, Dhruv Kapil, MR Arjun, Sai Prateek Krishna Prasad, Tasnim Mir, Pullela Gayatri Gopichand, Samiya Imar Farooqui, Aakarshi Kashyap, Malvika Bansod, Ashmita Chaliha, Aditi Bhatt, Tanisha Crasto, Treesa Jolly, Ashwini Bhat, Rutuparna Panda, and Shikha Gautam.
Boxing: Core Group: Amit Pangal, Deepak Kumar, Manish Kaushik, Sanjeet, Satish Kumar, MC Mary Kom, Lovlina Borgohain, and Pooja Rani.
Development Group: Kavinder Bisht, Ashish Kumar, Bihswametra Chongtham, Aakash Kumar, Sachin Siwach, Mohammed Husamuddin, Rohit More, Sachin, Ankit Narwal, Mohammed Etash Khan, Varinder, Shiva Thapa, Akash Sangwan, Naveen Boora, Nishant Dev, Hemant Yadav, Sumit, Sachin Kumar, Laksya Chahar, Naman Tanwar, Naveen Kumar, Vishal Gupta, Aman Singh, Narender, Nitu, Rani Manju, Nikhat Zareen, Anamika, Babyrojisana Naroem Chanu, Jamuna Boro, Poonam Poonia, Sakshi, Jasmine, Simranjit Kaur, Parveen Hooda, Ankushita Boro, Vinka, Arundathi Chaudhary and Sanamacha Chanu.
Fencing: Core Group: Bhavani Devi.
Development Group: Karan Singh, Abhay Shinde, C Jetlee, RS Sherjin, SN Siva Magesh, Bennet Joseph, Laishram Moramba, Oinam Jubraj, Tanishka Khatri, Sheetal Dalal, Vedika Khushi, and Shreya Gupta.
Rowing: Core Group: Arjun Lal Jat, Arvind Singh, Sukhmeet Singh, Bittu Singh, Jakhar Khan, and Ravi.
Development Group: Parminder Singh
Swimming: Development Group: Advait Page, Kushagra Rawat, Aryan Nehra, Neel Roy, Shoan Ganguly, Tanish George Mathew, Aneesh S Gowda, Swadesh Mondal, Aryan Panchal, R Sambhavv, Maana Patel, Kenisha Gupta, Aanya Wala, Apeksha Fernandes, Bhavya Sachdeva, Suvana C Baskar, and Ridhima Veerendra Kumar
Table Tennis: Development Group: Yashaswini Ghorpade and Prapti Sen.
