The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) has replaced all four deputy chefs de mission for the Hangzhou Asian Games appointed by the previous dispensation led by Narinder Batra.
However, Wushu Association of India chief Bhupender Singh Bajwa, who was appointed chef de mission for the Games in January 2022 by Batra, has been retained, PTI reports.
The new deputy chefs de mission appointed for the Games, scheduled to commence on September 23, are Ravinder Chaudhary (secretary-general, Athletics Federation of India), Commonwealth Games gold-medallist archer Dola Banerjee, MM Somaya (former hockey player) and Purukottam Ramachandran (former sprinter and member of the 4x400m relay team at the 2000 Sydney Olympics), per the newswire.
Batra had appointed Ajay Kumar Singhania (secretary-general, Badminton Association of India), Swapna Banerjee (president, Bengal Olympic Association), Gurudatta Bhakta (secretary-general, Goa Olympic Association) and Hariom Kaushik (executive board member, Netball Federation of India) as deputy chefs de mission.
But the Hangzhou Asian Games, earlier scheduled in September 2022, got postponed by a year because of a surge in Covid-19 cases in China and the IOA too saw new office-bearers under legendary Indian sprinter PT Usha taking charge of the National Olympic Committee in December last year.
