Under-20 World Athletics silver medal-winning long jumper Shaili Singh is among 50 sportspersons across eight disciplines who have been added to the Core Group of the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS), the Sports Ministry announced on Friday (December 24).
The decision was taken at a meeting of the Mission Olympic Cell (MOC) on Thursday, where 143 athletes were included in the Development Group. By picking 50 athletes in the Core Group and 143 in the Development Group across eight disciplines in the second list, the MOC has increased the count to 291, including 102 in the Core Group.
Athletes from as many as 13 Olympic disciplines and six Paralympic disciplines have been identified so far for support in their preparation for the 2024 Games. The 17-year-old Shaili, considered one of the brightest upcoming stars in Indian athletics, had won the silver medal in the long jump event at the World U20 Athletics Championship earlier this year.
Shaili Singh brings Silver for #India in Women’s #LongJump. It’s India’s best ever performance at the #WorldAthleticsU20.
Congrats Shaili. India celebrates with joy.@afiindia @WeAreTeamIndia @Adille1 @anjubobbygeorg1 @ianuragthakur @KirenRijiju @Media_SAI @IndiaSports pic.twitter.com/8f7ivDrGeM— abu metha (@abumetha) August 22, 2021
Among the youngest of those identified for support is swimmer Riddhima Veerendra Kumar. The 14-year-old won a clutch of medals in the National Junior Championships in October and also made waves in the National Championships a week later. She was named among the 17 swimmers in the 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 will be undertaken after the World Championships in June next year and of the archery list after the National Ranking tournament next month. Some other sport like Equestrian, Golf, Gymnastics, Judo and Tennis will be taken up later,” the ministry said.
There were no surprises in the selections made in other sports as well with Tokyo Olympians such as P V Sindhu, Deepika Kumari, MC Mary Kom, and Mohammed Anas Yahiya retaining their place in the core group. Seasoned shuttler Saina Nehwal has also managed to hold on to her core group spot despite failing to qualify for the Tokyo Games.
The list of athletes selected for TOPS Core and Development Groups:
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, MaanaPatel, Kenisha Gupta, Aanya Wala, Apeksha Fernandes, Bhavya Sachdeva, Suvana C Baskar and Ridhima Veerendra Kumar.
Table Tennis:
Development Group: Yashaswini Ghorpade and Prapti Sen
