Nagoya: At Saturday’s Asian Games Opening Ceremony, Olympic medallist Manu Bhaker was originally scheduled to lead the Indian contingent alongside shot-put medallist Tajinderpal Singh Toor as the flag-bearer. However, at the last moment, the Indian authorities made a change and asked kabaddi star Pawan Sehrawat to join Bhaker as the flag-bearer. The reason behind the last-minute change was unusual, amusing and has become a topic of discussion.
Tajinderpal Singh Toor is a shot-put athlete and was part of the Indian athletics contingent. The athletes from the athletics team had not been provided with kits for either the Opening or Closing Ceremony because, according to the schedule prepared by the Indian Asian Games organisers, they were not originally expected to participate in either ceremony. The athletes had only been given their competition kits.
Toor’s ceremony kit was still in India. However, on Friday, it was decided at the last moment that Toor would lead the Indian contingent alongside Manu Bhaker with the national flag at the Opening Ceremony.
Tajinderpal Singh Toor told reporters, “My ceremony kit was scheduled to arrive at Nagoya Airport in Japan at 3 pm. It would not have been possible for me to collect the kit from the airport and reach the Opening Ceremony venue on time. So, I informed the organisers that my kit had not arrived and that I would not be able to attend the ceremony as the flag-bearer.”
The Indian athletes were training at Tsukuba University in Tokyo, while the Asian Games Opening Ceremony was being held in Nagoya. As a result, instead of Toor, kabaddi champion Pawan Sehrawat was announced as the flag-bearer alongside Manu Bhaker.
India had won the kabaddi gold medal at the previous Asian Games, and Pawan Sehrawat was a member of that gold-medal-winning team.
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