Polish Sports Talent In Senior Category

Bhupinder Singh

(The writer is a national athletics coach)

Numerous sportspersons from Himachal Pradesh have won medals for the country in Olympics, Asian and Commonwealth games with the help from training programme they underwent while serving Indian armed forces or doing a job in other states. Many players from Himachal while staying in the hill state also won medals for the state at national level in junior category, but the presence at senior category confines to a small number. Kalawati and Vanita Thakur have managed to win a medal for the state in long race while Sanjo Devi has achieved success in javelin throw in women category. Whereas in men’s category, only Aman Saini succeeded to repeat his success at junior level in athletics in senior category too. Aman has participated in cross country race in Asian competitions numerous times. Kabaddi is another sports where Himachali boys have achieved considerable success. They not only won medals at junior national competitions but also carried their winning streak at senior national level competitions. Besides this, they also represented India at international level and helped won medal for the country.

Ajay Thakur, Pooja Thakur, Babita Thakur and Ritu Negi are some prominent Himachali stars of Kabaddi who helped India won medal at international level. Trainers Mehar Chand Verma, Jaipal Chandel, Dayaram Choudhary, Rattan Thakur and Kabaddi administrator Ram Lal Thakur and Nand Lal has played an important role in giving new direction to kabaddi. State Boxing Association functioning under the supervision of Rajesh Bhandari has also given good results both at junior and senior level. Boxers trained by boxing trainer Naresh Kumar has successfully shown that how continuous training can fetch good results.

Similarly many Himachali players could be seen representing India in hockey, volley ball, korfball and netball etc at junior level. But there is hardly any representation from the state in these sports at senior level. Who is responsible for this fiasco? There are sports hostels for junior players in the state, but for senior players there is no platform if they want to continue training programme. Most of the departments do not give time to their players after they are hired on job. Besides this there is no scholarship programme for unemployed sportspersons. But yes sports department do play a cruel joke by providing Rs. 1200 per annum scholarship for non-student sportspersons.

The state sports department and the concerned sports association will have to manage full training programme for talented players if they want to improve results in this sector. Besides this players inducted in government departments will have to be set free for training programmes so that they can bring honour for the state on ground. The initiative of state government and sports department can polish Himachali players to make them winning capable at international level.

Keep watching our YouTube Channel ‘Divya Himachal TV’. Also,  Download our Android App