IOA reject Saina Nehwal's request to provide her father with accreditation for 2018 Asian Games

The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) has formulated a no-parents policy for Indian athletes competing at the 2018 Asian Games and said it will reject any requests from the players to include parents in the contingent for the Jakarta Games, The Tribune reported on Saturday. The IOA has rejected Saina Nehwal’s personal request to provide her father, Harvir Singh, an accreditation for the Asian Games under the policy. “We have said no to her request to get accreditation for her father for the Asian Games. The reason is that this will be unfair on other athletes,” an IOA source told The Tribune on Saturday. [caption id=“attachment_4431347” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Saina Nehwal. AFPSain[/caption] “We will only allow a family member to travel with the team if he or she is involved in the athlete’s sport in some capacity. Sorry to say, but Mr Harvir Singh is not involved in badminton at all.” he added. Saina had threatened to pull out of the 2018 Commonwealth Games after her father was denied accommodation in the Games village at Gold Coast, and IOA had to shift one of its officials out of the village to accommodate him. Eventually, the Hyderabad-born shuttler went on to win the gold medal after getting the better of compatriot PV Sindhu in the final. Meanwhile, as per the report, Heena Sidhu’s husband Ronak Pandit will be included in the contingent as he is involved in coaching her and few more shooters, apart from being an adviser to the National Rifle Association of India. 2018 Asian Games will be held in Jakarta from 18 August to 2 September. India will be looking to better its performance from the 2014 Incheon Games where it won a total of 57 medals(11 gold medals, 10 silver and 36 bronze medals). Both Saina and Sindhu will be battling to be on the podium in the singles event at Jakarta but are expected to face a much tougher route to the final than they did at Gold Coast. Saina and Sindhu were part of the women’s team that won the bronze medal at Incheon and will also be looking to turn that into a gold, especially considering the solid performance in the team events at Gold Coast.