Just How Much Is The Sports Ministry Spending On India's Aichi-Nagoya Asiad Preparation?

The Sports Ministry on Tuesday said more than Rs 702 crore have been spent in the last three years on the training, equipment support and hiring of coaches and experts to prepare athletes for the Asian Games beginning September 19 in Japan where India's contingent will feature 310 event debutants.

CEO of the Ministry's flagship Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS), N S Johal, on Tuesday said the country's athletes have the requisite momentum to deliver strong performances and match up or better the best ever haul of 106 medals achieved in the previous Hangzhou edition.

"There is good momentum across disciplines and the contingent features a lot of debutants which is as TOPS CEO, a very proud thing for me. The gestation period in sport is high and when young athletes are able to enter the top level early, it is a very good sign for the future," Johal said in a media interaction here.

Among the youngsters who would draw attention in the Aichi-Nagoya Games are 15-year-old cricket star Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, who is not funded by the Ministry, paddler Syndrela Das, shuttler Ayush Shetty, and 18-year-old squash player Anahat Singh, who recently won the junior world title, and judoka Asmita Dey, the first Indian to win a Commonwealth Games gold in the sport.

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"Since January this year, we have had nine coordination meetings of the Target Asian Games Group and the whole effort has been to provide athletes with the best possible environment despite the administrative challenges posed by issues in various federations," Johal said.

"The biggest takeaway has been that despite everything that goes on, the focus has not wavered from the athletes. We have 65 athletes in the contingent who have come through Khelo India which is our baseline sports system," he added.

Asked to specify the challenges with regards to the federations, Johal said he would not comment on the issues but his comment was indicative of the routinely publicised administrative turf wars and selection controversies that plague several national federations.

The Ministry said Rs 702.86 crore have been spent as part of the Annual Competition and Training Calendar to prepare the athletes. An additional Rs 97.84 crore have gone into the preparations from the TOPS fund.

The largest chunk of this expenditure -- Rs 251.4 crore -- has gone into providing international competition exposure, followed by domestic training that has cost Rs 118.3 crore.

India will field 501 athletes (267 male and 234 female) and 265 support staff in 36 disciplines at the Asian Games. The country's Hangzhou haul included 28 gold, 38 silver and 40 bronze medals. The contingent size is two less than the originally sanctioned 503 after a couple of names had to be dropped for doping violations.

"In the end the performance has to come from athletes. We have tried our best. As I said, the momentum is good and the younger lot is carrying this momentum," Johal said.

Johal said aside from the athletes, TOPS has also tried to ensure that sports science specialists such as physios, and mental health experts along with doctors are well-represented in the contingent.

"Every team has women's support staff. One third of the authorised support staff is from sports sciences. These are the little things we have worked on to ensure balance in the contingents," he said.

"It took us a while to come out with the contingent list because some federations had not named enough women support staff," he added.

The 265-strong contingent of support staff features 56 women, which is roughly 22 per cent of the total strength.