New Delhi, Sep 7 : As many as 33 eminent sports personalities across 15 sports disciplines have applied for direct admission for the diploma course in sports coaching at the Netaji Subhash National Institute of Sports (NSNIS) Patiala. The list of applicants include 2008 Olympics Rowing participant Bajrang Lal Thakur, boxer Manoj Kumar, participant at the London 2012 Olympics as well as Rio 2016 Olympics participants Kunhu Muhammed (Athletics) and Poonam Rani (Hockey). They, along with the other sportspersons, have applied for the diploma course under the direct admission category and hence are exempted from the online test. "In view of the encouraging participation of eminent sportsperson in the sports coaching sector and align the course intake with evolving needs of the sports ecosystem, the Sports Authority of India brought forward a revamped diploma course in sports coaching to be made effective from the academic year 2020-2021," SAI said in a statement. For the first-time ever, 46 eminent athletes (1 male, 1 female coach in each discipline) across 23 sports, would get direct admission to the flagship Diploma Course, as announced in May by Union Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju. The criteria of winning a gold medal in the Asian or Commonwealth Games also has been replaced by winning a medal - gold, silver or bronze - in either of the events. Elite athletes who have participated in Olympics are automatically qualified to apply for the course. The collaboration with National testing agency (NTA) has been done in order to conduct the first-ever online entrance exam (for academic session 2020-21) at 17 NTA centres to be held on September 12 across the country. /IANS