MOC clears proposals of Paris-bound athletes for equipment

New Delhi, Jul 11 (PTI) The Sports Ministry’s Mission Olympic Cell (MOC) on Thursday approved multiple proposals for assistance towards equipment by athletes and para athletes in the build up to the Paris Olympics and Paralympic Games.

At its weekly meeting, the MOC has approved a proposal of paralympic table tennis medallist Bhavina Patel for assistance to compete in ITTF Para Table Tennis Asia Training Camp 2024 in Thailand from July 16 to 20 along with her coach and escort.

It also approved the request of para shooters — Manish Narwal, Rudranksh Khandelwal, Rubina Francis and Sriharsha R Devareddy — for various sport shooting related equipment.

These include air rifle for Sriharsha and Morini pistol for Rubina and assistance towards procurement of two javelins (Valhalla 800g Medium NXB and Diana Carbon 600g) for para-athlete Sandeep Choudhary.

The MOC also approved the request for financial assistance towards procurement of equipment for archers Ankita Bhakat, Deepika Kumari and para-archers Sheetal Devi and Rakesh Kumar.

It also approved assistance to judoka Tulika Maan, who along with her coach, will train in Valencia Judo High Performance Centre, Spain, till July 25.

The members also approved table tennis player Manush Shah’s request for financial assistance for training in Gyeonggi Do, South Korea, under Taejun Kim and for procurement of physical fitness equipment.

The MOC also gave green signal for the inclusion of athletes Suraj Panwar, Vikash Singh and Ankita Dhyani and swimmer Dhinidhi Desinghu in TOPS Core group while athletes Jeswin Aldrin, Praveen Chithravel, Akashdeep Singh and Paramjeet Singh were promoted from TOPS Development to Core Group.