The Equestrian Federation of India, which was ridden with controversy over the selection of the team for Asian Games, picked a fresh team for the Games set to be held in Jakarta in August. It has made some changes in the names forwarded to the Indian Olympic Association from the previous team which was announced and immediately cancelled by the president of the federation, Lt. Gen Ashok Ambre.
It forwarded a new list of four riders for Eventing discipline to the IOA, excluding names of triple Asian Games medallist Col. Rajesh Pattu but left a door open to change its squad composition citing the new entry system rule of the Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI). It decided to submit a list of 10 riders to FEI—four riders were picked in show jumping event.
also read
- #OnThisDay: When Nepal's batters broke several world records including Yuvraj Singh's famous T20I milestone at Asian Games 2022
- Cricket included in 2026 Japan Asian Games, OCA confirms
- 90m will happen when it happens
- Asian Para Games: Sumit Antil wins javelin gold, breaks own world record
- Indians sweep all medals in two events to begin Para Asian Games campaign in style
As per the new rule, while the EFI can forward four names per discipline to the IOA, it can simultaneously send triple number of entries as FEI nominated entries by June 30. By August 10, the EFI can also make final changes to its entries into the system as per “late replacement of athlete procedure”. Shruti Vohra, another rider, has been left out of the Dressage discipline.
It remains to be seen whether the Indian Olympic Association president Narinder Dhruv Batra is satisfied with the decisions taken at this meeting and the EFI's reiteration that it held the right to alter the selection criterion “as necessary, particularly where there is a change to the qualification system or circumstances affecting the nominations and entries' process”.
It may be noted that trials have not been freshly conducted but an exhaustive discussion on all the previous trials and the results thereof were discussed in this meeting. The results of trials held in Luxembourg have been declared invalid. Also results of trials held in Jardy (France) were removed from the qualifying trials by 4:1 vote of the selection committee.
The IOA had hauled up the EFI for the manner in which it had gone about selecting the team and the lack of clarity regarding selection trials held as well as the criteria. It had held several rounds of discussions with the EFI when the latter decided not to send a team to the Asian Games. This had led to protests from riders and the media.
The meeting of the selection committee of the EFI was convened on June 27 by its president and, besides the five members of the selection committee, included secretary general of the EFI, Col. R.K. Swain, and one observer from the IOA—Irene Koshy. The meeting also decided to list the coaching staff and team manager to be sent with the squad.
Lt. Gen Ambre, in the minutes, clarified that he cancelled the previous selection of the four-member Eventing and three-member Show Jumping team after receiving several complaints and found that none of the riders were meeting the selection criteria. However, after interaction with the riders post this decision, he received requests to change it and send a team as the “sport is very expensive for which riders have spent lot of money and effort”. He was also informed that making the Olympic grade was still out of their reach and hence the Asian Games was the highest level that they could aspire to compete in.