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62-member team likely for Sydney Games

The Indian track and field squad for the Sydney Olympics will be the largest the country will be entering for the coming games, from September 15 to October 1. It will have 20 to 22 athletes, making it the biggest team in an Indian contingent in recent times.

Talking to reporters after signing a sponsorship deal with Samsung Electronics, Indian Olympic Association president Suresh Kalmadi informed that the country will be represented by around 62 sports persons in hockey (men), badminton, athletics, boxing, judo, rowing, shooting, swimming, table tennis, tennis (men's doubles), weightlifting, wrestling and archery.

He conceded that India's chances of a medal in athletics are bleak, but said there is hope of medals from hockey, men's doubles tennis, weightlifting and wrestling.

Amateur Boxing Federation of India president Ashok Kumar Mattoo will be the chef de mission, while the V K Dutta of the Wrestling Federation of India will be his deputy. Indian Women's Hockey Federation secretary Amrit Bose has been named secretary-cum-treasurer of the contingent.

Giving details of Indian teams' preparations for the Games, Kalmadi, who is also president of the Amateur Athletic Federation of India, said six rowers are training in New Jersy while four boxers are in Cuba; swimmer Nisha Millet is in Australia and the hockey players and athletes are being put through their paces at Bangalore. He said the hockey team will leave for Murwillunbah, near Brisbane, on August 18, while the table tennis players are likely to leave for Singapore by the end of August for training-cum-coaching.

He also informed that shuttler Pullela Gopichand is training in Bangalore, while judoka Brojeshwari Devi and wrestler Gurbinder Singh (Grecco-Roman), who is likely to have a short stint in Belarus, are at the NIS, Patiala.

AAFI secretary Lalit Bhanot, who was present on the occasion, said his federation's qualifying standards for the Games are much tougher and higher than that of the International Olympic Committee and International Amateur Athletic Federation. "If we go by IOC/IAAF standards then about 38 athletes will qualify; but we want to go by our strict standards," he said.

Kalmadi said the athletics team will be finalised in the first fortnight of August, while the entry of two archers will be known by the end of July. He added that the IOA is expecting a wild card for badminton.

Earlier, Kalmadi and Samsung Electronic's vice-president (marketing) J.H. Park signed a contract making Samsung the official Olympic sponsor of the Indian team.

Park said his company will give Rs 1.5 million as sponsorship money to the IOA towards supporting the expenses of the squad as it prepares for the Games.

Apart from India, Samsung is supporting the National Olympic Committees of the USA, China, Indonesia and Brazil.

Kalmadi said the IOA is looking for 30 corporate houses to sponsor 30 disciplines in preparation of the 2002 and 2006 Asian Games and 2004/2008 Olympics. He said it has already got at least five corporate houses to sponsor five disciplines for the Asiad.

The following teams and players have qualified for the Games:

Hockey: 16 players - to be named after selection trials in Australia.

Badminton:1 - Pullela Gopichand.

Boxing: 4 - Suresh Singh (48 kg Light fly); N.Dingko Singh (56 kg Bantam); Jitender Kumar (75 kg middleweight); Gurcharan Singh (81 kg Light heavy).

Judo: 1 - Brojeshwari Devi (52 kg).

Rowing: 2 - Coxless Pairs.

Shooting: 2 - Anwar Sultan (trap), Abhinav Bindra (10m Air Rifle).

Swimming: 2 - Nisha Millet, H.Hakimuddin Shabbir.

Table Tennis: 3 - Chetan Baboor, S Raman, Poulomi Ghatak.

Tennis (doubles): Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi.

Weightlifting: 3 - One man and two women (Names to be finalised on August 21).

Wrestling: 1 - Gurbinder Singh 63 kg (Greco-Roman).

UNI