The Indian men’s weightlifting team, which included Achinta Sheuli and N Ajith, who won gold at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, the women’s fencing team, which included CA Bhavani Devi, and a number of other sports, including the modern pentathlon, triathlon, and taekwondo, have been cut from the Indian delegation for the upcoming Asian Games 2023 in Hangzhou.
All of them failed to meet the selection criterion set forth by the sports ministry, which stipulates that athletes’ performances in individual competitions over the course of the previous 12 months “should not fall below the performance achieved by the eighth position holder in the Asian Games 2018.”
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The Asian Games 2023 has also been missed by a number of other athletes, particularly in the sports of handball, tennis, and basketball. Only the female team of Saikhom Mirabai Chanu (49 kg) and Bindiyarani Devi (55 kg) has been approved for the Games in weightlifting.
The ministry rejected the men’s team’s participation, noting that Sheuli (73 kg) and N Ajith (73 kg) both lifted heavy weights during the Asian Championships in May 2023. Additionally, Sheuli lifted less weight (305 kg) than Ajith (310 kg) in the same weight category at the selection trials on June 30, 2023.
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Therefore, given recent performances, Sheuli might not be advised.
Sheuli set a Games record in Birmingham by snatching 143 kg and clean & jerking 170 kg for a total of 313 kg on the way to his gold medal.
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For the modern pentathlon, the ministry was given a list of five athletes to choose from (4 men and 1 woman) to make up the final Indian delegation. In the women’s individual event, these are Mayank Vaibhav Chaphekar, Basant Tomar, Rahul Kathuria, Sameer Krishna, and Reeta Devi.
“For men’s and women’s teams, there have been no recent performances, and the points of the selection trials are less than that of the eighth place of the Asian Games 2018,” the ministry argued.
As a result, the criterion stated is not met, making it unrecommended. The whole contingent in the triathlon and taekwondo sports was rejected using the same criterion for Asian Games 2023.
A similar decision was made with the men’s handball team, who “secured 15th place in the men’s handball Asian Championship 2022.” The men’s 5×5 basketball team was also passed over for final selection after it was discovered that it was ranked 15th among the Asian nations who were taking part.
The only basketball teams given the go-ahead in the end were the women’s 5×5 and men’s and women’s 3×3 teams.
In tennis, the ministry had been given the names of 12 players for the singles, doubles, and mixed doubles competitions (6 men and 6 women). Sasikumar Mukund’s name was left off the list for men’s singles, and Sahaja Yamalapalli and Vaidehi Chaudhari’s names were left off the list for women’s singles and mixed doubles.
The men’s epee, women’s foil, and both men’s and women’s sabre teams in fencing were disqualified for failing to meet the requirements of the ministry. Bhavani Devi, the face of Indian fencing, competed in the women’s sabre team alongside Josna Christy Jose, Rishika Khajuria, and Jagmeet Kaur.
Bhavani will represent the nation in the women’s individual sabre, nevertheless.The ministry approved a six-person Ji-jitsu squad after receiving entries from 16 athletes (8 men and 8 women) in individual competitions.
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