Odisha Govt Plans Major Revamp Of Sports Hostels For Holistic Growth Of Athletes

By OB Bureau On Aug 6, 2020

Action during India versus Argentina semifinal duel in the World Hockey League at Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar on Friday. India lost 0-1. Photograph: Ashok Panda

Bhubaneswar: The state government has launched a major restructuring and revamping of sports hostels to ensure holistic development of the athletes.

According to an official release, the Sports and Youth Services department has already started the process of bringing in changes in its 16 residential sports hostels. It plans to restructure the allocation of sports disciplines across hostels and nurture trainees of a particular sport, under defined age groups, at one location, thereby enhancing the scope for more competitive and collaborative learning, leading to the holistic development of an athlete.

At present, there are multi-disciplinary sports hostels in 11 disciplines for the trainees in the age group of 9-25 years. As per the plan, one particular sport will be devoted to one hostel thereby each hostel will develop into a specialised centre for a specific sport. It will also ensure appropriate cluster of athletes, adequate infrastructure, coaching and training.

The hostels have been selected on the basis of a particular popular sport in the region or district, availability of talent and the infrastructure.

The sports hostels in Bhubaneswar, Sundargarh and Berhampur will continue to operate as multi-disciplinary training hubs due to their infrastructure and related facilities.

Similarly, Panposh Sports Hostel will be exclusively for boys in field hockey and Sundargarh Sports Hostel will train Girls. However, sports infrastructure and related facilities at both the locations will be upgraded as per international standards to accommodate competitive nature of training and enhance performance of the athletes.

The department will also bring down the capacity of the hostels from 1250 to 913 and focus on training the athletes below 18 years. It plans to introduce an integrated comprehensive curriculum of sports and academics at the hostels to facilitate the overall skill and personality development of the athletes, the release stated.

Sports Minister Tusharkanti Behera said, “We aim to create a perfect training ground and strengthen our sports ecosystem, in the core of which lie these Sports Hostels, from where ‘players of tomorrow’ emerge. This would provide focused training and support for the athletes at beginner and intermediate level to graduate to a senior or elite level. Our hostels will be the pool of talent for the High Performance Centres.”

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