The Sports Authority of India has cleared a contingent of 46 athletes, eight coaches and other support staff for the Deaflympics to be staged in Samsun, Turkey, from July 18 to 30.
Except for five managers and a delegate, the government will take care of the full cost of 58 persons.
The squad consists of nine in athletics, eight in badminton, nine in tennis, eight in table tennis, five in wrestling, three in swimming, two each in golf and shooting, who were selected after a training camp and selection trials in Delhi and Gandhi Nagar.
After all the concern expressed by Parul Gupta about not being selected for tennis after she had finished third in the National championship, which was the primary a selection criteria, five girls were eventually selected for women’s tennis, apart from four men.
Apurba Biswas, Sonu Anand Sharma, Narinder Dagar, Chandra Bhushan Prasad, Shakun Bhugra, Mayank Diwan, V.K. Agarwal and Maha Singh Rao will be the coaches, taking care of various disciplines.
There will also be two interpreters, one physiotherapist and a chef de mission, which would be the secretary general of the All India Sports Council of the Deaf (AISCD), Walter Fernandez.
