By IANS
New Delhi : With athletics accounting for 162 of the 1,076 medals up for grabs at the Military World Games (MWG), to be held at Hyderabad and Mumbai Oct 14-21, the discipline has attracted the maximum participation at the sporting extravaganza that is considered next only to the Olympics in its scale.
Eighty-four medals – 28 gold, silver and bronze each – are waiting to be won in the men’s section and 78 – 26 each in the three categories – in the women’s section.
Vying for these medals will be 657 athletes – comprising 516 men and 141 women – from 67 countries. This is against a total participation of 3,006 sportspersons from 89 countries.
Not surprisingly, shooting, a skill that inherently remains the raison d’être of militaries world over, has attracted the second highest participation of 450 sportspersons from 55 countries, figures released Monday by the defence ministry showed.
Parachuting, an adventure-filled event, is another sport that has drawn overwhelming participation, with 313 sportspersons from 39 countries.
Diving has attracted the least participation, of only 31 men and 14 women from 11 countries.
Volleyball will see the least participation in terms of countries, with just eight nations sending 94 men and 72 women.
In terms of total participation, if the 1,575 team officials are added, the number swells to 4,581 – not counting the 1,300 technical officials who, along with the organising committee members, add up to a sizable sum.
Among the support staff for the MWG will be 3,377 civilian and military volunteers, 17,400 security personnel from the Andhra Pradesh Police and 2,600 Home Guards, taking the tally of those involved with the event to a staggering 35,000.
The MWG will feature three military sports – military pentathlon, shooting, and parachuting; eight individual or team events – football, handball, volleyball, sailing, triathlon, athletics, swimming and diving; and three contact sports – boxing, judo and wrestling.
Barring the triathlon and sailing events that will be conducted at Mumbai, all the other disciplines will be staged at Hyderabad.
In terms of medals won, the top three countries at the last MWG at Catania in Italy in 2003 were China with 58 (31 gold, 15 silver, 12 bronze), Russia with 92 (25, 34, 33) and Italy with 53 (20,14,19). India is yet to make its debut in the MWG medal tally.