India's athletes will now be evaluated annually for promotion to or removal from the Target Olympic Podium Scheme's (TOPS) core group, ending the system of biennial assessment to ensure a more robust appraisal process that would help consistent performers and weed out those who show a dip.
The decision was taken at the Mission Olympic Cell's 153rd meeting which was chaired by sports secretary Sujata Chaturvedi here on Wednesday. The current TOPS core group of 179 and its developmental list of 130 were also redrawn although the names of those promoted or demoted were not known yet.
TOPS was established in 2014 to provide assistance to the most high-performing Olympic medal prospects. The core group comprises established global achievers while the developmental group is made up of promising names who are seen to be potential world-beaters.
An MOC source told PTI that higher incentives are also being considered for retired Olympians and world-class players who want to take up coaching. This is being considered to ensure that they do not seek job opportunities outside of the country. However, the modalities of the proposal are still to be worked out.
"The MOC felt only a handful of top Indian players have been hired as coaches and their salaries did not match their achievements," the source said.
Some of the most high-profile former athletes involved in coaching in India include former All England champion shuttler Pullela Gopichand, Olympic medal-winning hockey goalkeeping legend P R Sreejesh, former women's hockey captain Rani Rampal and Asian Games gold-winning pistol ace Jaspal Rana.
Recently former badminton player Anup Sridhar had taken up a coaching role with the Singapore team.
The MOC also approved an additional 60 days of domestic and international training for TOPS athletes, which would be over and above their annual competition and training schedule proposed by National Sports Federations (NSFs).
The MOC also finalised the sub-committees to oversee progress in 12 Olympic disciplines, namely athletics, archery, badminton, boxing, hockey, rowing, shooting, table tennis, squash, weightlifting, wrestling and swimming.
M M Somaya (hockey), Adille Sumariwala (athletics), Gopichand, Cyrus Poncha (squash), Sunil Chhetri (football), Aparna Popat (badminton), Dr Satyapal Singh (para-athletics), Anjali Bhagwat (shooting), Gagan Narang (shooting), and Arjun Halappa (hockey) were among the names finalised for these committees.
Of these, Narang, Gopichand, Aparna, Satyapal Singh, and Poncha attended the meeting aside from representatives of private foundations such as Olympic Gold Quest, Reliance Foundation and JSW Sports.
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