Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat
– Photo: Social Media
Expansion
Wrestlers Bajrang and Vinesh, who have been on strike against Wrestling Federation of India president and BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh for sexual harassment, have been retained in the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS), which prepares for the Asian Games and the Olympics.
Mission Olympic Cell inducted 27 new players into TOPS’ core and development group based on past performances, while also dropping a number of players. Despite sitting on dharna, MOC has considered both these players as medal contenders in Asian Games. The MOC, on the other hand, has brought back two-time Olympian archer Atanu Das and world championship medalist boxer Shiva Thapa in the TOPS.
Varun Tomar of Baghpat, in Mehuli Developmental Group
It was expected that Bajrang and Vinesh could be dropped from TOPS due to not playing for a long time, but MOC did not take any such step. Baghpat’s pistol shooter Varun Tomar, TS Divya, who won gold in the 10m air pistol mixed event with Sarabjot Singh at the Baku World Cup on Thursday, airrifle shooters Mehuli Ghosh and Tilotma Sen have been included in the developmental group of TOPS by the MOC.
Simranjeet, Manish Kaushik out of tops
On the other hand, the MOC has dropped World Championship medalist boxers Manish Kaushik, Simranjit Kaur, Jamuna Boro besides Asian Championship medalist Kavinder Bisht from the TOPS on the basis of their recent performance.