2018 Asian Games Team: IOA lowers the bar for volleyball players, rowers and swimmers

The women's volleyball team of India is included in the team for the 2018 Asian Games.

At the Asian Games of Incheon four years ago, the women's volleyball and handball teams finished eighth on nine teams. Last year, they did not even participate in their respective continental championships. In triathlon, only two Indians are in the top 100 Asian rankings for men and women respectively. Considering that swimmers from the country have not even achieved a respectable finish at an elite Asian competition since the pioneering Sandeep Sejwal bronze medal at the 2014 Asiad.

If the criteria for Selection of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) and the Ministry of Sport had to be applied, so these – and some other sports – would find it difficult to make the cut for the Asian Games next month. However, despite the insistence of the AIO to follow these guidelines, the inclusion of these sports in the Indian contingent of 524 members raised a few eyebrows.

In March 2015, the Ministry of Sports established strict selection criteria for individual and team events. a similar chaos preceded the quota start for the 2014 Asian Games. By the standards, to be eligible for selection in individual events, an athlete – in the year preceding the event – had to equal, or better, the performance of the sixth of the previous tournament respective edition. For team sports, the benchmark was ranked among the top eight in the last year prior to the event.

Last month, the AIO released its own selection criteria, largely based on departmental guidelines. IOA President Narender Batra said that they had not departed from these guidelines when finalizing the contingent on June 30, the deadline set by the Olympic Council. Asia. But some discrepancies have arisen and it has been alleged that some sports have been preferred because of the presence of their federation officials on the IOA committees.

Take, for example, volleyball teams. The men's and women's teams did not participate in the Asian Championships last year because of the fights in the federation. Before that, in 2015, the men's team was ranked 11th in the final standings, a clear drop from the fifth place finish at the Asian Games of 2014. The women, meanwhile, were 10th at the World Championships. Asia 2015, again, unable to match their performance of Asiad, where they finished eighth out of nine teams. International rankings, too, have not been maintained for a year, which adds to the ambiguity.

This is a similar story for the women's handball team, which has been largely inactive in the last 12 months. Batra, however, claimed that the team is ranked fifth in Asia and was therefore included. "We received the latest rankings and as such, they meet the criteria.As they are ranked fifth in Asia, they must be of a certain standard," Batra said. The rankings, however, are not available on the website of the Asian Handball Federation

Subpar Performances
In canoeing, the strength of the Indian team is 19. At the championships previous Asian, more than half of the team did not reach the final. In fact, only seven out of seventeen did and there was only one result among the top six. This is a similar scenario in cycling and swimming, where most athletes have struggled to reach the top 10 Asian championships in their respective disciplines, not to mention the best six previous Games.
A total of 34 rowers are part of the contingent but at the Asian Championships last year, India managed to win a single medal (a bronze medal) while a large portion of them did not meet the criteria stipulating that the athlete should record a performance equivalent to the top-six. India also experienced difficulties in table tennis, but Batra said the recent performances at the Commonwealth Games – where the standard is much lower than the Asian Games – meant an exemption. Regarding triathlon, where Indians are far from Asian standards but still selected, Batra said: "It's the first time that triathlon has been included in the Asian Games, so we had to look at it differently. . "

of these federations are also members of the IOA Board of Directors. Anandeshwar Pandey, secretary of the Handball Federation of India, is also the treasurer of IOA, while Surinder Bali, the CEO of HFI, is part of IOA's joint secretaries. Balbir Singh Kushwaha, secretary of the Canoe and Kayak Federation, is also a member of the AIO Executive Committee while Virendra Nanavati, CEO of the Swimming Federation, remains an influential member of the Olympic organization. Rowing, volleyball and triathlon are also well represented in the AIO.

Batra, however, denied these claims. "I personally checked all entries and they met the criteria, there was no interference or influence," he said.

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