215-member athlete contingent for CWG

NEW DELHI: India on Thursday announced a 215-member athlete contingent, which consists of players from 16 disciplines, for the upcoming Birmingham Commonwealth Games that begins on July 28.

On the sidelines of the send-off ceremony for the CWG-bound athletes, Indian Olympic Association (IOA) acting president Anil Khanna called the athlete contingent a ‘gender-neutral’ one as 108 men and 107 women are part of the touring party. The overall count stands at 322, including 72 team officials, 26 extra officials and nine contingent staff, among whom three are general managers.

Athletics and hockey have the most number of entries with 36 players each. India will also compete in women’s cricket, which will make its CWG debut, aquatics, badminton, table tennis, boxing, cycling, gymnastics, triathlon, wrestling, weightlifting, lawn bowls, squash, judo and para sports. Olympic gold medal-winning javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra is likely to be India’s flag-bearer at the opening ceremony.

Bhandari appointed chef de mission

Onkar Singh was IOA’s first choice for the chef de mission role, but requested Khanna to consider someone else as he cannot take up the responsibility due to health issues. The IOA has now chosen Rajesh Bhandari, who was earlier named one of the three general managers of the contingent, for the role. Bhandari is the secretary of the Himachal Pradesh Olympic Association and the vice-president of the Boxing Federation of India.

Cash rewards announced

IOA secretary Rajeev Mehta announced that the Association would reward CWG gold medallists with Rs 20 lakh, silver winners with Rs 10 lakh and bronze medallists with Rs 7.5 lakh. The send-off ceremony was attended by Sports Minister Anurag Thakur, who also reviewed India’s preparations for CWG in a meeting held before the function.