With ‘Vision 2020’ in sight, focus is on youngsters

With a long-term view towards 2020 Olympics, the union ministry of sports is all set to nurture young talent and provide them with the best of facilities. A programme— 'Vision 2020' has been chalked out which aims at careful selection of the junior talent, imparting good training and arranging for their exposure tours abroad. The Sports Authority of India (SAI)—the field arm of the ministry—intends to make different states hubs for different sports. In this regard, the wrestling discipline was introduced at SAI sub-centre, Lucknow from Thursday. The hostel facility here will meet the requirements of the wrestlers from UP, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand. Though at the moment it is only for girls, boys wrestling could also start here in future. "There is no hostel for girl wrestlers in UP. To start with the strength of the hostel has been kept to 10 girls—mostly belonging to junior and sub-junior level and will be increased in future, when boxing for girls can also be introduced here," said Regional Director Rachana Govil. Director General, Sports Authority of India (SAI), Desh Deepak Verma who was in the state capital to review the sports promotional schemes of SAI and the junior girls national wrestling coaching camp being held at SAI Sub-centre, Lucknow, said, "In different disciplines, a lot of importance is given to men and women (senior section) while the junior and sub-junior level players are neglected. Only 10 to 15 per cent of the funds is spent on them though paying good attention to them can be very fruitful. Therefore, we have made this programme, 'Vision 2020'. SAI has started working on it. In fact, a senior official has just been given the task of supervising the activities at junior and sub-junior levels." He said the sports federations have also been asked to give their programmes for the senior and junior level players separately. Verma said, "Different states will be made centres for different sports. For example, in UP, the SAI centre will look after the wrestling for the younger lot while the UP Badminton Academy will be the hub for training of junior shuttlers. We will ensure that there is no paucity of coaches. If the need arises, we will recruit more coaches on contract basis."

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