Beneficiaries of Target Olympic Podium Scheme & Khelo India Scheme shine at 31st World University Games

Shooter Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar.

Khel Today Bureau 

New Delhi: At the halfway mark of the ongoing World University Games (August 3rd), India has won a total of 23 medals across 4 disciplines with highest medal count coming from shooting which has won India 14 medals including 8 Gold medals. Shooting is closely followed by 7 medals in Archery, and 1 medal each in Judo and Athletics. India had sent a total of 256 athletes to compete.

Out of these 23 medals, 14 medals have come from Khelo India Athletes, while all medals in Shooting (14) have been won by Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) Athletes and India’s highest medal count by an individual (4, including 3 Gold) coming from TOPS Shooter Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar.

Further, it must also be noted that Khelo India Athlete Archer Aman Saini, has contributed to India winning 3 medals and team India’s combined performance has resulted in India being in the Top 5 position in the medals tally for the first 5 days of the event.

Their combined effort had already ensured India’s best ever performance at the event with the previous best being 5 medals in 2015 University Games.

Since the inception of the World University Games in 1959, India had won a total of 18 medals till 2019 University Games. However, in the 2021 World University Games, India has already achieved a historic total of 23 medals to date.

A total of 71 present Khelo India Athletes are participating in the games and represent a wide range of sports, including Archery, Athletics, Badminton, Fencing, Judo, Shooting, Swimming, Table tennis, and Volleyball. Some of the major names are Tulika Maan, Commonwealth Games 2022 silver medalist in Judo, Srihari Nataraj, Tokyo Olympian swimmer as well as Indian shooting twins Udhayveer and Vijayveer Sidhu.

The Khelo India scheme is a flagship government-funded program that aims to identify and nurture sporting talent in India. The scheme has been very successful in recent years, and the athletes who have been selected for the World University Games are some of the best young talents in the country.

Srihari has been a participant in both the Khelo India Youth Games and the Khelo India University Games over the years. Manu Bhaker, too, has participated in both the Khelo India age group tournaments.

The World University Games is a major international sporting platform for the Khelo India athletes to showcase their skills and quite a few athletes participating have also been competitors at the Khelo India University Games held earlier this year in Uttar Pradesh.

The young athletes are competing against some of the best young athletes from around the world, and are looking to make their mark in the competition.