Controversial gymnastics coach named in India CWG squad | Commonwealth Games 2022 News – Times of India

NEW DELHI: Rohit Jaiswal, accused of ‘misdemeanour’ by gymnast Aruna Budda Reddy, has been included as one of the men’s team’s coaches in the Indian gymnastics contingent for the Commonwealth Games (CWG) in Birmingham. His name figures in the CWG ‘list of athletes and officials’ finalised by the Indian Olympic Association (IOA).
Jaiswal was recently repatriated to his parent cadre — Border Security Force (BSF) — by the Sports Authority of India (SAI) after a three-member SAI‘s inquiry committee, which was tasked with probing the alleged incident where the gymnast was video-graphed during a fitness test, had concluded its investigation into the matter and submitted the report to the headquarters.
A seven-member Indian gymnastics contingent has been selected for the CWG, with Jaiswal and Ashok Kumar Mishra as the two male coaches. Krupali Patel Singh will be mentoring the four-member women’s team.
Surprisingly, Singh has been named in the ‘ETO’ (extra team official) category, which means she won’t be staying with the female gymnasts inside the Athletes Village but will have access to the ‘Field of Play’ (FoP) during their competition days.
Quartermiler Arokia Rajiv included
Quartermiler Arokia Rajiv’s name has found mention in the 36-member list of athletics contingent, after the 4x400m relay specialist was dropped from the CWG squad to accommodate high jumper Tejaswin Shankar. In a statement to the Delhi High Court earlier this month, the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) had informed about Arokia’s disqualification due to a false start in the 400m heats at the inter-state meet in Chennai which resulted in the inclusion of Shankar. However, Shankar’s late entry wasn’t accepted by the Birmingham organisers.
Manika’s coach in squad
Woman table tennis player, Manika Batra, will have the services of her personal foreign coach, Chris Adrian Pfeiffer, during the Games after the Romanian’s name was included in the ETO category. He will be in Manika’s coaching corner (FoP) during competition days. There are other personal coaches accompanying athletes, including Bajrang Punia‘s coach Sujeet Mann or Dutee Chand’s mentor Nagapuri Ramesh. But they have all been part of national camps as regulars.