Manu Bhaker And Tajinderpal Singh Toor Named India's Flag-Bearers for Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games Opening Ceremony

Double Olympic medal-winning shooter Manu Bhaker and defending shot put champion Tajinderpal Singh Toor were on Friday named as India's flag-bearers for Asian Games opening ceremony at Nagoya.

The ceremony is scheduled for Saturday.

"Manu Bhaker will be one of the flag-bearers," India's chef-de-Mission Sahdev Yadav said.

Later, the Athletics Federation of India confirmed that Toor will be the second flag-bearer.

Bhaker made history at the 2024 Paris Olympics by becoming the first athlete from Independent India to win two medals in a single edition of the Olympic Games.

Toor has finished with gold medals in the past two editions of the Asian Games.

The picking of Bhaker and Toor as flag bearers was on expected lines as shooting and athletics contribute a major share of the total number medals for the country in the Asian Games.

In the last Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, in 2023, athletics contributed 29 medals (6 gold, 14 silver, 9 bronze) while shooting's share was 22 (7 gold, 9 silver, 6 bronze).

India had won a record 107 medals, including 28 gold, in the 2022 Asian Games.

Toor has been training at the University of Tsukuba near Tokyo as the 74-member Indian athletics team left the country early for a short acclimatization camp.

The team will reach Nagoya on Monday, but Toor will be here on Saturday for the opening ceremony.

"I am feeling proud that I will be one of the flag-bearers of the Indian contingent. It's a dream of every athlete to be flag-bearer of his or her country. I thank the IOA for giving me the honour," Toor said in a video message from IOA.

"It's a big moment of a lifetime for me that I am going to be the flag-bearer along with an Olympic medallist (Manu Bhaker)."