PM Modi meets Rio Olympics bound athletes, wishes them luck
Source: The Sangai Express / PTI

New Delhi, July 04 2016: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday met the Indian athletes who will represent the country at the forthcoming Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and wished them luck.

At the function held at the Manekshaw Centre, PM Modi interacted individually with the sportspersons, and wished them luck for the August 5-21 Games.

The dignitaries who at- tended the function were Sports Minister Jitendra Singh, Sports Secretary Rajiv Yadav, All India Council of Sports (AICS) Chairman Vijay Malhotra, Indian Olym- pic Association President N Ramachandran, Secretary General Rajeev Mehta, Hockey India President Narinder Batra, HI secretary general Mohammed Mushtaq Ahmed among others.

India will be sending its biggest ever contingent to the Olympics this year with more than 100 athletes having al- ready qualified in 13 sporting disciplines.

The previous highest was 83 that the coun- try sent in the 2012 Olympics in London.

More athletes are likely to qualify in the coming days, and the Sports Ministry and the IOA are expecting more than 110 to represent the country in the Games.

Notable athletes who met the Prime Minister today were shooters Jitu Rai, Manavjit Singh Sandhu, Heena Sidhu, shuttlers PV Sindhu, K Srikanth, boxers Manoj Kumar and Shiva Thapa, long distance runners Sudha Singh and Lalita Babar among oth- ers.

The Indian women's hockey team along with chief coach Neil Hawgood and coach C R Kumar were also in attendance.

National badminton coach Pullela Gopichand and box- ing coach Gurbax Singh Sandhu were also part of the gathering.

During the send-off func- tion the athletes were seen taking selfies with the PM and his autographs.

Several of the Rio-quali- fied athletes gave the function a miss as they are currently training abroad.

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