IOA announces 322-member strong squad for Birmingham CWG

Indian Olympic Association (IOA) has announced a 322-member strong Indian squad for the Birmingham Commonwealth Games (CWG), beginning 28th of this month. The contingent includes 215 athletes and 107 officials and support staff. The CWG Games are set to take place from 28 July to 8th August this year in the British city. In the 2018 CWG at the Australian city Gold Coast, India finished third behind Australia and England.IOA Secretary General Rajeev Mehta said, we are sending one of our strongest squads ever to the CWG, and even with a strength sport for us like shooting not being there, we are confident of bettering our performance from the last edition. The competition will be world-class and fierce but our athletes have prepared well and are fit and raring to go, he added.
Some prominent names in the squad besides Neeraj Chopra include Olympic medallists PV Sindhu, Mirabai Chanu, Lovlina Borgohain, Bajrang Punia and Ravi Kumar Dahiya. Defending CWG champions Manika Batra, and Vinesh Phogat as well as 2018 Asian Games Gold medallists Tajinderpal Singh Toor, Hima Das and Amit Panghal are also part of the squad. Rajesh Bhandari, Vice President, Boxing Federation of India, has been appointed the Chef de Mission of the squad. Team India will compete in 15 sporting disciplines as well as four disciplines in the Para Sports category. The CWG village will officially open its doors to contingents on 23rd of this month.