The Sports Authority of India (SAI) said on Friday that it would bear the lodging and boarding expenses of country's top archers who came to Pune to participate in the selection trials for the Tokyo Olympic qualifiers starting on Saturday. SAI shared this information through Twitter. SAI tweeted, 'No athlete attending a national camp or trail will have to pay for boarding and lodging. The government will provide support, like in previous cases, to the men's and suspected recurve archers competing at the trials in the Army Sports Institute (ASI), Pune, that starts on Jan 4.'
The sports ministry's statement comes after reports that claimed that Olympians like Deepika Kumari, Bombali Devi and Atanu Das had to make all the arrangements in Pune for the selection trials themselves, as the Archery Association of India is suspended. Archers had raised the question, 'Think you have come to play Olympic qualifiers, but everything has to be arranged by yourself. SAI's job is to take care of all these things. SAI has done this last time in the selection trial.' Archers like Deepika Kumari, Tarundeep Roy, Atanu Das, Bombila Devi are going to participate in the trial to be held from January 18 to 22.
