Indian Olympic Association (IOA) President Narinder Batra has mentioned the participation of Indian hockey groups in subsequent yr’s Commonwealth Games is “doubtful”. This is to make sure that the groups are ‘contemporary’ for the 2022 Asian Games, he mentioned, which will probably be held a little bit greater than a month after the Commonwealth Games and can double as an Olympic qualifier for hockey.
After a gathering with Sports Authority of India (SAI) Director General Sandeep Pradhan on Friday to plan the 2022 Asian Games and 2024 Olympics, Batra mentioned the hockey groups’ choice to take part was primarily based on their “preliminary discussions”. Hockey India.
Hockey India didn’t remark when requested for an replace from their facet.
“The final decision has to be taken jointly by the Hockey India management and the coaches. If the teams play in the Commonwealth Games, then the players will have to prepare accordingly and reach the top there. Then you cannot expect him to peak again in the Asian Games, which is a qualification for the Olympics,” Batra mentioned. Therefore it’s uncertain for him to take part within the Commonwealth Games. In addition, there aren’t any world rating factors on provide.”
The Commonwealth Games are to be held in Birmingham from 28 July to eight August. The Asian Games will start on September 10 in Hangzhou, China. Asian Games gold medalists additionally win Olympic berths. In 2018, each the Indian groups completed fourth within the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games. They have been unable to seal an Olympic spot after the lads’s crew gained the bronze on the Asian Games and the ladies returned with a silver medal.
Indian gamers rejoice a objective throughout the ladies’s hockey bronze medal match towards Britain in Tokyo 2020. (AP)
Both groups went by a troublesome playoff format to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics, the place they carried out remarkably – whereas the lads’s crew gained the bronze medal, the ladies narrowly escaped and completed fourth.
Asked whether or not there was a chance of sending a ‘B’ crew or a junior crew for the Birmingham Games, Batra mentioned the choice had not been dropped at his discover but. “Whenever you go to a event, you win for not ending fifth, sixth, seventh. The degree that our males’s and girls’s groups have reached is that if they do not end within the high three. There is not any level,” he mentioned. “Asian Games, Commonwealth Games and Olympics will not be for efficiency. We go there to win and if we can’t do this then why waste the nation’s cash unnecessarily.
Hockey India has till early subsequent yr to take a last name on the difficulty. If they really determine to not ship groups to the Commonwealth Games, it’s going to considerably scale back India’s contingent. In the Gold Coast, India despatched 216 athletes to fifteen sports activities and gained 66 medals, together with 26 gold and 20 silver and bronze.
Narinder Batra is the President of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA). (file)
India has already been at loggerheads with the 2022 CWG organisers, after they eliminated taking pictures and archery, two sports activities through which India has gained a number of medals within the CWG from its schedule. When it was determined to prepare these two occasions in Chandigarh, the Commonwealth Games Federation put it on maintain, citing the “uncertainty created by the ongoing global pandemic”.
Batra mentioned all these components will have an effect on India’s medal tally within the Birmingham Commonwealth Games. “If hockey groups don’t go, and add to the truth that taking pictures and archery will not be a part of the Commonwealth Games, it’s going to lead to round 62 much less athletes than the 2018 contingent. The ladies’s cricket crew could take part however nonetheless the distinction will stay. “It will also appear proportionately on the medal tally.”
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
