NEW DELHI, Apr 17: The much-anticipated joint meeting between representatives of the suspended IOA, the Sports Ministry and the International Olympic Committee, to find a way in resolving the issues that led to India’s ban from the Olympics, has been postponed from May 7 to May 15.
Sports Secretary P K Deb informed that the meeting, scheduled to be held at the IOC headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland has been postponed as IOC president Jacques Rogge is busy on May 7.
“The IOC has expressed their desire to meet Sports Minister Jitendra Singh. But the postponement happened only because IOC president Jacques Rogge is not available on May 7,” Deb told here.
The IOC had originally wanted the meeting to be held in March, but had extended the dates to April.
In its earlier letter, the IOC had categorically mentioned, “the main purpose of this meeting will be to agree on an action plan and a road map, with clear deadlines, to sort out all pending issues and to allow for free, fair, democratic and transparent elections within the IOA on the basis of a revised IOA Constitution and the Olympic Charter, without any outside interference”.
Earlier in the day, Sports Minister Jitendra Singh said that the stand-off between the government and the IOA over the contentious Sports Code was nearing resolution.
Talking to reporters after a meeting with IOC member in India, Randhir Singh, the sports minister said he was confident of the country returning to the Olympic movement soon. (PTI)
‘> �P � @L� �� another tie, seventh seeded Chinese pair of Xiaolong Liu and Zihan Qiu took only 26 minutes to get the better of India’s Manu Attri and Sumeeth Reddy B, 21-18 21-9.
The women’s doubles category saw mixed fortunes for the Indian shuttlers as Pradnya Gadre and Ashwini Ponnappa took just 29 minutes to get the better of Pei Rong Wang and Kuo Yu Wen, 21-12 30-29.
But the combo of Aparna Balan and Siki Reddy N lost to Hsiao Huan Chen and Chia Wen Lai 16-21 17-21 in 29 minutes.
India’s mixed doubles duo of Tarun Kona and Ashwini Ponnappa also lost their opening round tie against Liu Yi and Lei Yao 14-21 21-16 18-21 in 47 minutes. (PTI)
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