The Ministry added athletes across athletics, mixed martial arts and surfing for the Games. Surfing is also making its debut at the Asian Games, as four athletes – Kishore Kumar, Sivaraj, Kamali and Sugar Shanti – will represent India in the sport. MMA is also marking its debut at the Games.
The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports on Thursday added another 11 athletes to the 492-athlete list for the Asian Games as the Indian contingent for the Aichi-Nagoya Games was expanded to 768 members.
Chopra Withdraws from Asian Games Javelin Competition
Neeraj Chopra, a two-time Olympic medallist, has been removed from the 73-member Indian athletics team for the upcoming Asian Games. As a result, he will not be able to defend the javelin titles he won in Jakarta 2018 and Hangzhou 2023. Rohit Yadav will represent India in the men’s javelin throw in his place.
India’s athletics squad features 15 returning champions and medallists from previous Asian Games. Notable names include Avinash Sable, Tajinderpal Singh Toor, Parul Chaudhary, and Annu Rani, all of whom are individual champions from Hangzhou 2023 and will aim to retain their titles in Japan.
The expanded list now sees India’s Asiad contingent extend to 768 members, with 503 athletes (269 male and 234 female). A total of 246 team officials/support staff and 19 contingent staff are also part of the Indian roster set to compete across 36 disciplines in the continental showpiece.
The Ministry has also confirmed the head of the Centre of Excellence to be the head coach of the Indian men’s side for the cricket event. Sunil Joshi, Hrishikesh Kanitkar and Subhadeep Ghosh will join Laxman, while Amol Muzumdar will spearhead the women’s team for the Asiad. Muzumdar will have Aavishkar Salvi as the bowling coach and Munish Bali as the fielding coach in his coaching staff. Meanwhile, men’s 110m hurdler Tejas Shirse, who was initially selected for the 110m hurdles despite sustaining two stress fractures in his left foot during the CWG in Glasgow, has also been omitted from the team. Abhishek Pal, who has landed in a doping controversy after being served a notice by the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) over an apparent violation, was dropped from the squad.
Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Yashvir Singh has replaced the 2022 Asian Games gold medallist Neeraj Chopra in the list after Chopra was ruled out of the season due to an injury. Earlier in the day, the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) also finalised the 77-member athletics squad for the Asiad.
