Asian Games 2018: Indian Olympic Association directs sports federations to send equal number of male and female support staff

New Delhi: The Indian Olympic Association has asked the National Sports Federations to nominate equal number of men and women support staff in their respective contingents for the upcoming Asian Games, a top official said on Monday. [caption id=“attachment_4705521” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. Reuters[/caption] Out of the 541 athletes cleared so far by the IOA, 297 are men and the remaining 244 are women. The apex body also wants an almost equal number of men and women support staff in the Indian contingent. “Except for a few disciplines, all others have almost equal representation of men and women athletes. In some disciplines (like fencing, basketball and taekwondo), there are only women athletes. So, we want an almost equal number of men and women support staff,” IOA secretary general Rajeev Mehta told PTI. “It may not be that the number of men and women support staff should be exactly same but it should be nearly same number. The difference should not be much. We have have told this to the NSFs,” he added. Mehta said that the total number of officials nominated by the NSFs has come to 201 but a final number will be known only after IOA’s direction on this equal representation of men and women support staff. “Now the NSFs have given us a total of 201 and under the rule it should be 163. We will cut down this number but some may be recommended (to the Sports Ministry) to be sent on the cost of the federations. The final contingent will be known in a day or two,” Mehta said.