New Delhi, Mar 14 (IANS):The Mission Olympic Cell (MOC) of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports (MYAS), during its 127th meeting, approved equestrian participant Fouaad Mirza’s proposal to compete in five competitions ahead of the upcoming Paris Olympics in July-August.

Mirza, who is currently the 1st Reserve in Olympic Group Rankings, and 2nd Reserve in Olympic World Rankings for Paris, will be given financial assistance towards competing in Fédération Equestre Internationale’s (FEI) events in Kronenberg, Sopot, Marbach, Strzegom and Baborowko.

The Ministry, under its Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) funding, will cover Fouaad’s airfare, accommodation costs, entry fees, and horse grooming costs among other expenditures. TOPS will also cover his expenditure for equipment such as riding breeches, riding boots, riding gloves, tailcoats, jackets and other equipment for the horses, the Ministry informed on Thursday.

Priyanka Goswami gets the nod

During the meeting, MOC also approved racewalker Priyanka Goswami’s proposal towards training in Australia.

Priyanka, who under TOPS funding, had trained in Australia earlier this year as well, will return to train under coach Brent Vallance for another 34 days. TOPS will cover her and her masseur’s airfare, accommodation and food costs, coaching fee, expenditure for local transportation for training & airport, sports science support and out-of-pocket allowance for other expenditures.

The MOC also approved proposals by table tennis players Swastika Ghosh, Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, Archana Kamath and Manika Batra for financial assistance towards various competitions.

While Swastika will compete in WTT Feeder events in Dusseldorf and Havirov, Sathiyan will take part in WTT Feeder events in Varazdin (Zagreb) and Havirov.

Indian ace Manika Batra, along with her coach Aman Balgu, will head to South Korea to participate in WTT Champions Incheon. Archana Kamath, meanwhile, will compete in WTT Feeder events in Varazdin and Dusseldorf and will also be training in Dusseldorf, Germany, ahead of the WTT event.

The Ministry under TOPS funding will cover their airfare, accommodation and food costs, entry fee, local Transportation cost and training charges at DTTZ – Dusseldorf for Archana.

In Para-sports, the MOC approved proposals of para-shooter Singhraj Adhana and para-athlete Pranav Soorma for sports equipment, sparring partner's fees and physiotherapist fees for para-badminton players Nithya Sre and Mandeep Kaur and financial assistance towards participation in Marrakech 2024 World Para-Athletics Grand Prix event for Para-Javelin thrower Rinku Hooda.