Fouaad Mirza to compete in five competitions ahead of Olympics

New Delhi, Mar 14 (PTI) Ace Indian equestrian Fouaad Mirza will compete in five competitions as part of his preparation for the Paris Olympics after his proposal was approved by the Sports Ministry on Thursday.

The 32-year-old Fouaad, who is currently the first reserve in Olympic Group Rankings and second reserve in Olympic World Rankings for Paris, will be given financial assistance towards competing in F d ration Equestre Internationale’s (FEI) Events in Kronenberg, Sopot, Marbach, Strzegom and Baborowko.

The government will cover Fouaad’s airfare, accommodation costs, entry fees, and horse grooming costs among other expenditures.

“TOPS will cover his expenditure for equipment such as riding breeches, riding boots, riding gloves, tailcoats, jackets and other equipment for the horses,” the ministry said in a release.

The Mission Olympic Cell (MOC) during their 127th meeting also approved racewalker Priyanka Goswami’s proposal towards training in Australia.

Priyanka, who had trained in Australia earlier this year, will return to train under coach Brent Vallance for another 34 days.

“TOPS will cover her and her masseur’s airfare, accommodation and food costs, coaching fee, expenditure for local transportation for training & airport, sports science support and Out of out-of-pocket allowance for other expenditures.”

The government also approved table tennis players Swastika Ghosh, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, Archana Kamath and Manika Batra’s proposals for financial assistance towards various competitions.

While Swastika will compete in WTT Feeder events in Dusseldorf and Havirov, Sathiyan will take part in WTT Feeder events in Varazdin (Zagreb) and Havirov.

Manika along with her coach Aman Balgu will head to Korea to participate in WTT Champions Incheon. Archana, meanwhile, will compete in WTT Feeder events in Varazdin and Dusseldorf and will also be training in Dusseldorf ahead of the WTT event.

“Ministry under TOPS funding will cover their airfare, accommodation and food cost, entry fee, local Transportation cost and training charges at DTTZ Dusseldorf for Archana.”

In para sports, the ministry approved proposals of para shooter Singhraj Adhana and para athlete Pranav Soorma for “sports equipment, sparring partner fees and physiotherapist fees for para badminton players Nithya Sre and Mandeep Kaur.

The government also cleared financial assistance towards participation in World Para Athletics Grand Prix event for para javelin thrower Rinku Hooda.