Bhubaneswar: Veteran South African Swim Coach Douglas Eager and Olympian as well as Asian Games medallist Sandeep Sejwal will lead Odisha JSW Swimming High Performance Centre (OJSHPC) at Kalinga stadium here.
The seasoned swim coaches have been selected with an aim to create structured athlete development pathways for the swimming in Odisha and help Indian athletes achieve success at the global level, the JSW Group stated in its release on Thursday.
A unique partnership between the state and JSW has seen the conglomerate lead the technical aspects of the swim programme in Odisha and establish best practices to offer coaching programs aimed at developing Indian swimmers capable of achieving FINA ‘A’ Qualification times for World Championships and the Olympics in 8-12 years. A total of 34 swimmers have already been identified as part of the HPC since its inception.
The OJSHPC will be part of a network of HPCs being set up under the umbrella of Inspire Institute of Sport (IIS), India’s first privately-funded High Performance Centre established by JSW and furthers the Group’s commitment to Odisha and the holistic growth and development of Olympic disciplines in the country.
Speaking on the occasion, Sports Secretary, R Vineel Krishna said “Swimming is amongst a priority sports for us and we aim to promote it both as a sport and also as an important life skill, right from grassroots to elite. The HPC trainees are already making their mark at different competitions and we are confident our unique partnership with JSW will be instrumental in creating champions of tomorrow.”
Besides HPC, JSW is also focusing efforts on a statewide Grassroots Programme through a network of 8 training centres across Odisha. The focus at these centres is a ‘Learn to Swim’ programme aimed at getting more children to take up swimming as a life skill and create a performance pathway for swimmers in the state.
A Coach Development initiative is also being put in place for continuous professional development of state coaches through certifications and workshops with international swim coaches.
The programme further expands the network of training centres being developed by the JSW Group under the Inspire Institute of Sport High Performance network.
Highlighting the importance of the Odisha programme, CEO of IIS, Rushdee Warley said, “The JSW-Odisha Swimming HPC is a great model of active partnership between a state government and the private sector. We are taking learnings from the world class daily training environment for the elite youth levels we’ve set up at the IIS, and adding a grassroots layer of swimming as a life-skill, which will help broad base the sport and increase its acceptance among the youth.
Centres and Contact Details
Bhubaneshwar, Kalinga Stadium – +91 89044 82502
Boudh, District Stadium – +91 90788 74400
Sonepur, District Stadium – +91 90900 02025
Ganjam, Circuit House – +91 78940 16114
Mayurbhanj, North Odisha University Road – +91 81434 41994
Angul, Angul Stadium – +91 83289 83711
Bolangir, R.N Singhdeo Swimming Pool – +91 82802 10876
Sambalpur, Golbazaar – +91 93372 46022
Jajpur, Near Kusuma Pond – +91 82496 77821
