Archery
Atanu Das and Mehuli Ghosh re-included in TOPS list
Atanu Das was re-inducted to the TOPS programme of the Sports Ministry after his recent exploits at the Archery World Cup.
Atanu Das claimed one of Indian archery's biggest win in the Tokyo Olympics last year, but he has not replicated that form since then. (File Photo/Olympics)
Olympian Archer and World Championship Silver Medallist Atanu Das were reinducted in the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports (MYAS) Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) after his recent performances at the domestic circuit and the Archery World Cup in Antalya this year.
Along with B Dhiraj and Tarundeep Rai, Atanu won silver in Archery World Cup in the Men's recurve team event after losing to China in the finals.
Atanu, who had scored 673 points to claim the fourth spot in the Men’s Recurve individual rankings, was making a return to international outdoor competition after nearly one-and-a-half years.
Other big names to be included in TOPS are Rifle shooter Mehuli Ghosh who won the 10m Air Rifle event at the National Shooting Trials this year and 15-year-old Tilottama Sen who had earlier won the 10m Air Rifle event’s Bronze at Cairo World Cup this year, that too in her debut performance in the senior circuit.
She also has Junior World Championships Bronze and Team Gold under her belt that she won in the year 2022.
A total of 27 new names were inducted into the TOPS Core and Development lists which now takes the total number of TOPS Athletes to 270 (101 in Core, 269 in Development).
Launched in 2014, Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) is the flagship program of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports in an attempt to assist India’s top athletes.
The program was revamped in 2018 to boost India's medal chances at Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
The support under TOPS includes foreign training, International competition, equipment, and coaching camps, beside a monthly stipend of ₹50,000 for each athlete in the core group.
