Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 11

Celebrated pistol shooting coach Jaspal Rana and archery coach Poornima Mahto will not be part of the Indian delegation that will leave for the Tokyo Olympics next week.

Rana’s name is missing from the list of coaches that have been cleared to travel for the Tokyo Games. Deepali Deshpande, Suma Shirur and foreign coach Oleg Mikhailov will look after the rifle team, while Samaresh Jung and Ronak Pandit will take care of the pistol contingent. Trap discipline’s chief coach Mansher Singh will look after the skeet shooters – Angad Vir Singh Bajwa and Mairaj Ahmad Khan.

The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) had recommended Rana’s name. However, in screening, the pistol coach, who is only attached to Abhishek Verma these days, was dropped from the final list.

In total, 227 athletes plus officials, including the support staff, have been cleared to travel to Tokyo.

Similarly, Poornima’s name is missing from the list after archers Tarundeep Rai, Deepika Kumari and Atanu Das wanted Mim Bahadur Gurung in the coaching staff for Tokyo. Gurung is Rai’s coach.

Interestingly, wrestling will have four foreign coaches as part of the contingent. Kamal Malikov, Murad Gaidarov, Emzarios Bentinidis and Woller Akos have all been given the go ahead to travel with Indian coaches Jagmandar Singh, Anil Mann and Rajiv Tomar.

Also finding his name among the touring party is Chhote Lal Yadav, the personal coach of six-time world champion boxer MC Mary Kom. However, world No. 1 wrestler Amit Panghal’s coach Anil Dhankar is missing from the final list.

Namdev not going

Meanwhile, Indian Olympic Association (IOA) has decided to not include India Taekwondo president Namdev Shirgaonkar’s name as part of the official delegation. IOA treasurer Anandeshwar Pandey, who said that he would not sanction the budget for this trip, openly opposed IOA president Narinder Batra’s insistence about Namdev’s inclusion.

However, Namdev’s name has been dropped and Pandey will travel to the Games as part of the official delegation. In the initial travel plan, there are eight officials, who will represent India as contingent officials. Chef-de-mission BP Baishya, deputy chef-de-mission Dr Prem Verma, chief medical official TK Bhowmik, doctor Arun Basil Mathew, security in-charge BK Sinha, IOA director George Mathew and senior manager Pushkar Negi will be part of the official delegation.