100 crore earmarked to groom talent for Olympics

Anantapur: District Sports Authority (DSA) is working with enthusiasm to identify potential boys and girls in the schools and colleges in the district and promising and talented youth, who can represent the state and nation in World Olympics. 

The state government has sanctioned Rs 100 crore for the Sports Authority of Andhra Pradesh (SAAP) to invest on promising sportsmen and women and groom them into national champions in every sport including volleyball, kabaddi, archery, basketball, table tennis, taekwondo and shuttle badminton.

The SAAP would spend Rs 20 crore per year on the sportspersons’ health and additional diet. The training would be on par with international standards. Coaches from USA and Jamaica would visit the academies and give expert training to the trainees. The training is totally free for the selected sports players.

The DSA has zeroed in on 8 schools locally both government and private for selecting potential candidates for according special training in regional sports academies. Regional academies are located in Visakhapatnam, Kakinada and Kadapa. 

State-wide the academies together will train 600 youth from the state. The local DSA is training 40 youth in kabaddi, 10 in archery and 40 candidates in shuttle badminton. To this end, the SAAP indoor stadium in Ashok Nagar has emerged as the nerve centre for coaching in multiple disciplines.

Sports Development Officer Jagannatha, who is taking keen interest in nurturing school children of today into sports persons of tomorrow. Every day, the indoor stadium is teeming with life with hundreds of high school and junior college going students both boys and girls are coming for a rigorous training for two hours in the morning and two hours in the evening.

At the indoor stadium, enthusiastic college girls and boys, who have emerged as national players representing AP state in several disciplines are seen enthusiastically practicing.

Speaking to ‘The Hans India' Jagannatha stated that the cream of the basketball players will also be sent to sports academies in the state for receiving training from the USA and Brazil coaches. 

A few girls doing well in basketball were selected of late to get rigorous and higher quality training in Basketball Academies in Kakinada in East Godavari and Visakhapatnam districts. These sportspersons would also receive extra diet and care by the academy concerned. The government has earmarked funds for spending on potential Olympic players.