Teams for Military Games train at Army Sports Institute

Over 4,000 sportsmen belonging to the military forces of about 100 nations would be competing with each other in over 24 sport forms in the Games. The Indian teams,constituting sportsmen from Army,Navy and Air Force,will be participating in 11 events,including cross country,shooting,taekwando,triathlon,pentathlon and volleyball. While the teams for triathlon,swimming and volleyball are being trained at Hyderabad,shooting practice sessions are on at Mhow.

ASI coaches said strict schedules,according to Brazilian timings,were being followed for training these sportsmen. “Our training is in two sessions — 6-9 pm and 12 midnight-3 am; they are fixed according to Brazilian timings to reset the players’ body clocks as per the competition timings and to bring the best out of them,” fencing coach Havaldar Deepak Singh said.

The 10-member fencing team,with three players each in Epee,Foil and Sabre categories,includes Maj V S Jamwal,the bronze medalist in Asian Championship,and Asian Games participants K P Jishonidhi and I Surendra Singh. “We are hopeful of medals in the sabre and foil categories,” Singh said.

The boxing team,also comprising 10 members,have five national medallists who hope to bag as many as seven medals at the Games though they are first-time participants. “We have Asian Games silver medal winners Manpreet Singh and V Santosh Singh,besides Nano Singh,Havaldar Chhotelal Yadav and N Suranjoy Singh. We are training in three sessions. Our players are competent enough,” boxing coach Subedar Arul Vanal said.

The 22-member athletics team is the biggest team. “Last time,the medals for javelin went for 74-75 m. My competition best has been 77.73 while the best at practice sessions has been 78.96 metres,which gives me the confidence,” said Naib Subedar Kashinath Naik,CWG bronze medallist and gold medalist in Bangalore nationals.