Wrestler Ritu Phogat Dropped From TOPS

The youngest of the celebrated “Phogat Sisters”, wrestler Ritu Phogat was dropped on Tuesday from the government’s Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) after her decision of shifting her loyalty to Mixed Martial Arts (MMA). The Sports Authority of India (SAI) has taken this decision to ax Ritu from the TOPS programme after the young wrestler made herself unavailable for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. She decided to try her luck in MMA in Singapore.

The SAI said that wrestler Ritu Phogat who had earlier been inducted into the TOPS scheme has been omitted from the scheme since she will not be participating in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, on account of her shifting to Singapore for training in regards to Mixed Martial Arts. Ritu, besides a bronze in Asian Championships, has gold in Commonwealth Wrestling. She is the youngest sister of Geeta and Babita Phogat, on whom the Aamir Khan-starrer Bollywood movie ‘Dangal’ was made.

Among other decisions which are taken at a meeting and which were also attended by SAI Director General Neelam Kapur and Indian Olympic Association (IOA) President Narinder Batra among others, the mission Olympic cell of SAI has chosen five para-badminton players for inclusion in the TOPS for Tokyo Paralympic Games. Sukant Kadam, Tarun, and Suhas Yathiraj (Men’s Singles-SL4), Manoj Sarkar and Pramod Bhagat (Men’s Singles-SL3), are the five most powerful men’s singles para shuttlers who have been noticed for inclusion in TOPS.

the two female para shuttlers are Parul Parmar and Manasi Joshi who has been kept on the watchlist. There are six swimmers also who have been selected in the developmental group for the 2024 Olympics. The swimmers are chosen in the development group are Srihari Nataraj (100m and 200m backstroke), Advait Page (800m and 1500m freestyle), Kushagra Rawat (400m and 800m freestyle), Aryan Nehra (1500m freestyle), Kenisha Gupta (50m and 100m freestyle), Aryan Makhija (800m and 1500m freestyle).

Also, young swimmers Maana Patel, Khushi Dinesh, Neel Roy, Likhit SP, and Lohith M, have also been included in the watchlist. Among other decisions, the SAI also cleared financial proposals which are related to training, competition, and equipment for the Indian athletes who are part of the TOPS scheme in five sports — wrestling, shooting, athletics, tennis, and weightlifting.

By: Preeti Narula

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