at least 9 Federations fear the worst While a few federations and their athletes prepare to show their work to the Prime Minister on the same day during their tete-e-tete. The feedback meeting between the Ministry and NSFs (National Sports Federations) has been pushed to 15th October. The returns from large contingents at the Aichi Nagoya Asian Games have been meagre. So what next?
In the end, 20 members and a bronze medal was the return. A ministry source told NDTV, “At least 9 Federations will be pulled up by the Ministry when the meeting with NSFs happens this month. Rowing sent 22 members, returned with a bronze, a 20 member fencing team returned empty-handed; a 20 member badminton team won 1 bronze.
The women’s doubles pair that won the World Championship title earlier in the month flopped, so did the others. Table Tennis won a bronze in Mixed Doubles.
A day ahead of the start of the Asian Games, the Chef De Mission, Sahdev Yadav had said, “Ministry has told us to spend as much as we need to see that athletes have every comfort. The Minister was clear that we did not want to send tourists who would come back and get a Govt job. Our mandate was to send medal winners. When some of the sports that are heavily funded by the Govt of India and are considered as key sports during the Olympic cycle do not give returns, time for some tough questions. Canoeing, Esports, Cycling, Swimming, Tennis had nothing to show.
Yet 20 of them came back with one team bronze for the men after defeating Bangladesh 3-0 in the round of 16. 503 Indian athletes participated across 36 sports. There were 85 individual and team medals, 21 Golds that helped India retain the 4th spot.
The Badminton team sure was ensured the next level.
