Seasoned kabaddi player Pawan Sehrawat replaced Tajinderpal Singh Toor as India’s flag-bearer for the Asian Games opening ceremony in Nagoya on Saturday as the celebrated shot-putter has not yet received his official kit, which will prevent him from attending the gala event. Toor was to join shooting ace Manu Bhaker in leading the national contingent during the ceremony. The 30-year-old Sehrawat, who was a part of the gold-winning Indian men’s kabaddi team in the previous Asiad, will now take Toor’s place in the ceremony, chef-de-mission Sahdev Yadav told PTI.
Seasoned kabaddi player Pawan Sehrawat replaced Tajinderpal Singh Toor as India’s flag-bearer for the Asian Games opening ceremony in Nagoya on Saturday.
Nobody in the athletics team has got their kits so far,” he revealed. “IOA told me yesterday about me becoming flag-bearer. Otherwise my coach who reached here yesterday could have picked it (the kit) up for me,” he said. (Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
Reaching the opening ceremony venue after collecting my kit from airport on time will be very difficult. “My kit is lying in India. The athletics team has been training at the University of Tsukuba near Tokyo since September 13 as part of an acclimatisation camp and is scheduled to reach Nagoya on September 21, two days before the start of athletics events.
“I am told that my kit will reach at 3pm at the (Nagoya) airport. So, I have told IOA (Indian Olympic Association) that I am not coming for opening ceremony,” Toor told PTI. Toor said had he known about his role at the opening ceremony earlier than Friday, he could have tried to ensure that he got the kit on time.
