Agencies
PARIS, July 21: A day after its Korean chief coach Baek Woong Ki was forced to leave following denial of Olympic accreditation, India's archery contingent found itself at the centre of another controversy as it was alleged that a "tainted" physio was accommodated at his expense.
The contingent will be without Woong Ki and Dronacharya award-winning High Performance Director Sanjeeva Singh as both of them could not find a place in the contingent's support staff.
A top Archery Association of India (AAI) official revealed that instead, physio Arvind Yadav has been included despite the fact that he faced allegations of making an "inappropriate approach" to a Canadian teenager during the Youth World Championships in Limerick, Ireland in November last year.
India had won a historic haul of six gold, one silver and four bronze medals at that event.
"As per the complaint from the World Archery competition manager Thomas Aubert, Yadav had made an inappropriate approach to a Canadian teenager on social media," the official told PTI.
"The Canadian coach reported this to the WA, who in turn raised the complaint with AAI. Federation called an ethics committee meeting and dismissed the matter saying the 'inappropriate approach' to the teenaged Canadian archer was a 'normal hi, hello'," he revealed.
Yadav, when reached out, rejected the charge altogether.
"It's a conspiracy to malign me. Nothing of this sort has happened. Why didn't AAI take action against me then? Also, the archers could have objected to my appointment," Yadav said.
The AAI source claimed that Yadav is very close to the body's secretary general Virendra Sachdeva.
"Whenever there is a top competition he makes such a back-door entry. He was there in Rio Olympics too. He didn't accompany the team during the Asian Games last year."
"This time also he came three months prior to join the national camp and was given an accreditation. The AAI could have easily cut off his name and allowed the Korean chief coach who is specifically contracted for the Olympics," the AAI official added.
AAI president Arjun Munda refused to talk about the tainted physio.
"Why are you raking this up? Let's not talk about it. Let's not create another controversy now," Munda told PTI when asked about Yadav's inclusion and the incident last year.
Munda insisted that it's the archers who "wanted him" to be a part of the support staff.
"This is somehow a tricky decision which depends on the players' comfort and whom they want in the team and the federation gives priority to that. AAI doesn't interfere in this, we don't want to force someone in the team," said Munda.
The AAI official, who raised questions on Yadav's inclusion, also pointed out that the IOA-approved 13-member medical team for Olympics, which is headed by acclaimed sports injury expert Dr Dinshaw Pardiwala, should have been enough for the archers.
"The team has physiotherapists, nutritionists, psychologists, even a sleep therapist this time. Why does the federation needs their own physio and psychologist (Gayatri Vartak) who has joined only a few months back?" the official questioned.
"They could have struck off those two names and easily included Baek and Singh, who has accompanied the Indian team in all the junior and senior events in this Olympics cycle," he said.
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