Sakshi Malik, Olympic bronze medallist dropped from SAI's TOP Scheme

Sakshi Malik dropped from SAI's (Sports Authority of India) TOP Scheme; Steeple chaser Avinash Sable included. After a string of poor performances, Olympic bronze medallist Sakshi Malik, who was in the TOP scheme till the World Wrestling Championships, has not received a further extension, indicating that her name has been dropped from the Olympic scheme. The SAI's Mission Olympic Cell took this decision on October 4, which decided to include men’s freestyle wrestler Ravi Dahiya, who had earned an Olympic quota in Men’s 57 kg freestyle after winning a bronze medal at the recently concluded World Championships.

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The TOP scheme 

The Target Olympic Podium Scheme is a flagship program of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports which is a scheme to provide assistance to India’s top athletes. Weightlifter Ragala Venkat Rahul has also been excluded from the TOP scheme. The committee cleared financial proposals of over 70 lakhs at the meeting. Three national federations Shooting, Table Tennis and Weightlifting also shared their roadmap for 2020, 2024 and 2028 Olympics with regards strategy, planning and talent identification.

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Financial proposals 

The following financial proposals in 8 sports were cleared:

1)    Athletics: Overseas training in Colorado Springs for Men’s 3000m steeplechase runner Avinash Sable under Scott Simons for a period of nine months till the Tokyo Olympics. 

2)    Badminton: The committee has cleared the proposal of Sameer Verma to participate in three international competitions Dutch Open, Macau Open and Korea Masters in October and November respectively. The committee has also sanctioned the proposal of Saina Nehwal for financial assistance of her fitness trainer Swaroop Sinha to accompany her for seven international tournaments till December 2019. 

3)    Shooting: The training, ammunition and competition requirements of seven shooters Anjum Moudgil, Rahi Sarnobat, Manu Bhaker, Abhishek Verma, Lakshay Sheoran, Mehuli Ghosh and Anish Bhanwala were approved by the committee.

4)  Para-Badminton: The committee cleared a combined proposal of five players Pramod Bhagat, Suhas Yathiraj, Manoj Sarkar, Sukant Kadam and Tarun for participation in the Denmark Open Para-Badminton International for a period of eight days in October. 

5) Para-Shooting and Para-Athletics: The committee has sanctioned the training and equipment needs of para-shooter Deepender and para-athletes Sharad Kumar and Sandeep Chaudhary.

6) Wrestling: The committee has sanctioned the proposal of Pooja Dhanda who will be training for a period of one month in her hometown of Hisar under the supervision of coach Fanel Carp.

7) Weightlifting: The committee has sanctioned the proposal of financial assistance towards Mirabai Chanu having a physiotherapist cum masseuse Shivani Bharuka who will attend to her at the National camp till the Tokyo Olympics.

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