215-member Indian squad for the Commonwealth Games
Boxing Federation of India vice-president Rajesh Bhandari has been named as chef de mission.
A 215-member Indian squad will be heading to the Commonwealth Games, to be held in Birmingham from July 28 to August 8, comprising 108 male and 107 female athletes.
While some athletes are either already in the United Kingdom for acclimatisation, training or competition, others are engaged in professional assignments in other parts of the world and will reach Birmingham directly. The rest will depart from India in the next couple of weeks.
The overall strength of the contingent will be 322, including 72 team officials, 26 extra officials, nine contingent staff, including three general managers. Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra will likely be named the flag-bearer at the opening ceremony. Indian athletes will be competing across 16 disciplines.
Boxing Federation of India vice-president Rajesh Bhandari has been named as chef de mission after Cycling Federation of India chairman Onkar Singh pulled out.
“Onkar ji withdrew as he will be busy with the National Games,” said IOA acting president Anil Khanna. Onkar had been named as the chef de mission initially.
It was announced that gold medal winning athletes will get Rs.20 lakh from the Indian Olympic Association (IOA).
“Rs.10 lakh will be awarded to silver winners while bronze winners will get Rs.7.5 lakh,” IOA secretary general Rajeev Mehta said in a send-off ceremony here on Thursday.
2022 will be the 22nd edition of the quadrennial Games. In Gold Coast 2018, India had finished third in the standings behind Australia and England with 66 medals including 26 gold, 20 silver and bronze each. India’s best show was at Delhi 2010 when they finished behind Australia.
“The performance at last year’s Olympic Games was our best ever and we have seen the improvement of our athletes across sports in recent times with our own eyes. The historic Thomas Cup win was one such occasion,” sports minister Anurag Thakur, who was the chief guest at the ceremony, said, adding that that he was extremely happy that the squad had attained gender balance.