Asian Games: 22 new athletes added to India’s list of participants

The sports ministry on Thursday shared a revised list of Indian contingent for the upcoming Asian Games, adding 22 new sportspersons and naming 25 replacements, which include athletes, coaches, and support staff. Modern Pentathlon was also added to the list, thus taking India’s participation to a total of 39 sporting disciplines at the showpiece. India will have a total of 655 athletes bound for the Asian Games — to be held in Hangzhou, China from September 23 to October 8 — along with 260 coaches and support staff, taking the country’s overall contingent tally to 921. In shooting, India have added Manisha Keer, Preeti Rajak and Angad Vir Singh Bajwa, while in athletics, Amlan Borgohain, Preeti and Prachi have been added to the squad. The sport of Ju-Jitsu has the addition of Anwesha Deb, Nikita Chaudhary, Uma Maheshwar, Kamal Singh and Tarun Yadav. Janhvi Choudhary has been added in aquatics, Suraj Yadav in wushu, whereas Mayank Chaphekar will be the only athlete in modern pentathlon. Vishal Ruhil, Keshav, Suchika Tariyal and Jyoti Tokas are four additions to kurash, whereas men’s team pursuit cycling will also have four more athletes in Venkappa Shivappa Kengalgutti, Neeraj Kumar, Manjeet Kumar and Dinesh Kumar. There has been no change in out of pocket allowance from the last Asian Games held in 2018 in Indonesia with the ministry announcing an allowance of USD 50 per day. “Out of Pocket allowance to the contingent members @ US $ 50 per day – to be remitted directly to the bank account of the athletes and officials by the Sports Authority of lndia,” the ministry said in a release. The ministry added that accommodation charges and out of pocket allowance will be paid for “period of actual stay in Asian Games Village subject to one day of stay after conclusion of the competition/the Games, as the case may be.”