Sports Ministry approves practice camp for Neeraj and three players abroad
The Sports Ministry has approved Olympic gold medalist Neeraj Chopra’s proposal to train at Loughborough University, UK. Star javelin thrower Neeraj will train at Loughborough for 63 days with coach Klaus Bartonitz and physiotherapist Ishan Marwaha. Besides Neeraj, the government’s Mission Olympic Cell (MOC) in its 86th meeting on Friday also approved proposals of badminton player Kidambi Srikanth, wrestler Deepak Punia, javelin thrower and Commonwealth Games medalist Annu Rani.
The estimated cost of training of all these athletes will be around Rs 94 lakh, which will be sanctioned under the National Sports Development Fund (NSDF) of the Sports Ministry. Srikkanth will train for 29 days at the Prisma Sports Club in Jakarta with his coach and physiotherapist. Deepak will be in Michigan for 34 days with his physiotherapist, while Anu Rani along with her physiotherapist will train under coach Werner Daniel at the Leichtathletik-Gemeinschaft (LG) Offenburg in Germany.
Daniel had earlier trained Neeraj as well. Funds for these will be provided under the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) of the Sports Authority of India (SAI) and will cover the cost of flight, accommodation, local travel and other expenses such as food for the athletes and their support staff. Topps will also provide each player with an ‘out-of-pocket’ allowance of US$50 per day for any other expenses during their stay.
