The Olympics-bound duo of race walker K.T. Irfan and javelin thrower Shivpal Singh along with sprinter Dutee Chand have been included in the core group of the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS), the Sports Ministry said on Sunday.
Also, star javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra, who has qualified for the Tokyo Olympics, and top sprinter Hima Das were retained in the core group after a performance review.
Others included in the core group were Annu Rani (women’s javelin), Arokia Rajiv (men’s 400m and 4x400m relay), Noah Nirmal Tom (men’s 400m and 4x400m relay), Alex Anthony (men’s 400m and 4x400m relay), M.R. Poovamma (women’s 400m and 4x400m relay).
Shot putter Tajinder Pal Singh Toor was also retained in the TOPS core group, along with Neeraj Chopra and Hima, after a performance review while triple jumper Arpinder Singh was dropped from the scheme.
High jump National record holder Tejaswin Shankar, Harsh Kumar (men’s 400m and 4x400m relay), V. Revathi (women’s 400m and 4x400m relay), R. Vithya (women’s 400m and 4x400m relay), Shaili Singh (women’s long jump), Sandra Babu (women’s triple jump) and Harshita Sehrawat (women’s hammer) were those included in the developmental group.
Neeraj and Shivpal qualified for Tokyo Olympics early this year in competitions in South Africa while 20km race walker Irfan did it last year during the Asian race walking championships in Japan.
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