8 para-athletes in four different sports included in TOPS scheme
Nov 27, 2020
New Delhi [India], November 27 : Eight para-athletes in four different sports have been included in the Target Olympic Podium Scheme.
The decision was taken in Thursday's 50th meeting of the Mission Olympic Cell. The eight athletes from Para Athletics, Para Shooting, Para Badminton and Para Table Tennis are now part of the Target Olympic Podium Scheme.
Para Athletics: Men's Discus Thrower in F52 event Vinod Kumar who has qualified for the Tokyo Paralympics at the World Championships was included in the TOPS scheme. Praveen Kumar who has qualified for the Tokyo Paralympics in Men's High Jump T64 was also included in the scheme as has been Ajit Kumar Panchal who competes in the Men's F52 Discus Throw event.
Virender Dhankar who competes in the Men's Shot Put F57 event and Jayanti Behera who competes in the Women's 400m F47 event were excluded from the scheme.
Para Badminton: The Women's Doubles Pair of Parul Parmar and Palak Kohli (SL3-SU5) who are currently ranked world number 5 in the race to qualification for the Tokyo Paralympics have been inducted into the TOPS scheme.
Para Shooting: Rubina Francis who competes in the Women's 10m Air Pistol SH1 event has been included in the TOPS scheme as has Siddharth Babu who competes in the Men's 50m Rifle Prone event. Siddharth Babu has already attained a quota for the Tokyo Paralympics. Deepender who competes in the Men's 10m Air Pistol SH1 event has been excluded from the scheme.
Para Table Tennis: Bhavina Patel who is ranked 8th in the world in the W-Class 4 event has been included in the TOPS scheme. She has earned a quota for the Tokyo Paralympics and will be the first Indian to represent the country in Para Table Tennis at the Paralympics.
