The men's hockey team captain, Manpreet Singh, was named as the flag bearer by the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) for Team India during the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony in Birmingham in 2022, along with shuttler PV Sindhu.
When the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games Organising Committee informed the IOA that two Flagbearers - one male and one female - must be named by each nation for the Opening Ceremony, the IOA decided to name Singh, who led the Indian men's hockey team to a bronze medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics last year.
Manpreet Singh was chosen as a Flagbearer by the same four-person committee that earlier in the day nominated PV Sindhu as the first flagbearer: IOA Acting President Anil Khanna, IOA Secretary General Rajeev Mehta, IOA Treasurer Anandeshwar Panday, and Team India Chef de Mission Rajesh Bhandari.
The same procedure was used to choose the male flagbearer as it was to name the female flagbearer.
Before Khanna and Mehta selected Singh for the honour, the four-member committee had shortlisted paddler Achanta Sharath Kamal, boxer Amit Panghal, and boxer Amit Panghal.
IOA Acting President Anil Khanna: “Manpreet Singh ended Indian hockey’s 41-year Olympic medal drought with a bronze at the Tokyo Olympics last year. He is one of the finest athletes to have ever represented India on the international stage," he said.
"We are delighted to name him and Sindhu as the two Flagbearers who will lead the Indian contingent out at the Parade of Nations during the Opening Ceremony of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games,” he added.
“As with the three female shortlisted athletes, their three male counterparts were all deserving candidates, but we decided that Singh be named a Flagbearer with Sindhu because of the leadership he showed at Tokyo 2020, which played a part in our men’s hockey team clinching a sensational bronze medal,” said IOA Secretary General Rajeev Mehta.
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