India men’s national hockey team captain Harmanpreet Singh and Olympic medalist boxer Lovlina Borgohain will be the flag-bearers of the Indian contingent at the opening ceremony of the Asian Games in Hangzhou on September 23.
This comes after the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) decided to have joint flag-bearers for the continental showpiece on Wednesday.
As many as 655 Indian athletes will be competing in the Asian Games this time, becoming the largest contingent ever.
The Chef de Mission of the Indian contingent, Bhupender Singh Bajwa was quoted by PTI as saying, “We arrived at the decision after much deliberation today.”
Bajwa, who is also the chief of Wushu Association of India, said, “This time we will have two flag-bearers leading the contingent at the Asian Games -- hockey captain Harmanpreet Singh and boxer Lovlina Borgohain.”
The honours were done by star javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra at the opening ceremony of the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games.
Lovlina Borgohain had bagged a bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics in the 69 kilograms category. This year, she won the gold in the 75 kilogram category at the World Women’s Boxing Championship in New Delhi.
On the other hand, Harmanpreet is one of the best drag-flickers in the world and was a part of the team that won the historic bronze medal at the Tokyo Games, to break the more than four-decade-long Indian hockey team’s medal drought in the Olympics.
This time around, the Indian men’s hockey team will aim to bag the gold medal at the Hangzhou Asian Games and secure automatic qualification for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
Bajwa will be alongside four deputy chefs de mission who will assist him at the Asian Games with the job bringing a lot of responsibility along with it. He is also the chairman of the ad-hoc committee for wrestling constituted by Indian Olympic Association.
