State’s three-tier sports plan for athletes aims to negate months lost to pandemic

PUNE After a pandemic-impacted year – the Maharashtra state sports department is ready to change gears as far as sporting activities go

PUNE After a pandemic-impacted year – the Maharashtra state sports department is ready to change gears as far as sporting activities go.

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Currently the state has a three-layer programme in place for athletes to be trained – high-level performance academies, district-level training centres and divisional academies.

“The academy at the Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex will be a high- performance centre where players who have won medals at the national and international level will train,” said Om Prakash Bakoria, state sports commissioner, after the launch of the Khelo India Centre of Excellence at the Shiv Chhartapati Sports Complex in Balewadi, on Monday.

“At the divisional-level, academy players in priority sports will be given training.

Maharashtra has selected weightlifting, judo, boxing, fencing, table tennis, gymnastics, athletics, triathlon, track cycling, archery, shooting and hockey as its priority games.

High performance academies and divisional academies are residential academies, while district training centres will not provide lodging facilities.

“We are in the process of finalising our district training centres where talent searches and training will be conducted,” added Bakoria.

The state has divisional level academies at – Nagpur, Ahmednagar, Gadchiroli, Amravati, Nashik, Aurangabd, Kolhapur and Thane.

“Keeping players of all levels in one place will not bring out the best results. This division will also help athletes improve before getting enrolled at the high performance centre in Pune,” added Bakoria.

The state will also finalise locations for smaller Khelo India centres which will run under a central government programme.