The responsibility of the immediate goal, i.E., to prepare an action plan for Tokyo Olympics has been entrusted to the three sportspersons in the panel -- lone Olympic individual gold medallist Abhinav Bindra, national badminton coach Pullela Gopichand and former India hockey captain Viren Rasquinha.
"We met today for the first time and discussed carious processes and protocols on how to get things done within the timeframe. We decided that our first focus is 2020 Tokyo Olympics and myself, Gopi (Gopichand) and Abhinav are in charge of that," Rasquinha, who is a member of the panel, told PTI.
Bindra, Gopichand and Rasquinha were the only three former sportspersons named in the task force. The other five members of the task force are School Sports Promotion Board head Om Pathak, hockey coach S Baldev Singh, who runs an academy in Shahabad, G L Khanna (Professor and Dean of Exercise and Physiology at Manav Rachna International University at Faridabad), journalist Rajesh Kalra and Sports Authority of Gujarat Director General Sandeep Pradhan.
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"Me, Abhinav and Gopi will help the other committee once we finish our immediate job of preparing a plan for 2020 Olympics."
Rasquinha, who is also the CEO of Olympics Gold Quest, said the panel has decided to engage national and international
experts and also appoint two research professionals.
"We will call national and international experts for their
"We will also be engaging with National Sports Federations (NSFs) and other key stakeholders."
The next meeting of the task force is scheduled for February 19 at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) here.
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