Good in sports? DU wants you

Delhi University (DU) not only wants hardworking jacks, but also young guns who can shoot a miniscule target at 10m away, are excellent athletes or cricketers.

Sport is serious business in DU. Every year through sports quota many sportspersons get admissions. Colleges also welcome them with open arms, are flexible with the minimum percentage criteria in an effort to make their in-house sports teams stronger — giving students who might otherwise not good in studies a chance to study in the best of colleges.

DU colleges are prepping up their sports facilities, modernizing them to meet the national and international standards to help train the best they enroll.

Air rifle and pistol shooting is fast becoming the new ‘in’ thing in the campus. Hansraj College has a state-of-the-art computerised 10m air rifle and pistol-shooting range filled with new-age gizmos. “The shooting range is one of its kind in the entire university. Shooters training here can better their aim with the help of computers that monitor each shot. We have also bought a new gadget called SCATT which monitors the blood pressure, heart rate and other such things while they are shooting,” said Dr Savita Kochar, sports in charge at the college. Many of their students have won international competitions in not only shooting, but also water polo and archery as well.

Not to be left behind Sri Venkateswara College will open a shooting range and badminton courts during the new session. Moti Lal Nehru College and Ram Lal Anand College also have a slew of sports-related developments in the pipeline, including the development of new basketball courts, tennis courts and hockey pitches.

The vast stranded and unused land area behind the auditorium is being developed as hockey courts at Vivekananda College in East Delhi. A full-fledged gym with treadmills, weight-benches, lifting platforms, cardio and other weight machines has already been set up.

The Commonwealth Games committee has zeroed in on some DU colleges to develop sports facilities for players taking part in the event. Ram Lal Anand College has come up with a proposal to develop a hockey pitch where players taking part in 2010 Commonwealth Games can hold their practice sessions. According to the Principal Dr. S.C. Sharma, “We had talks on the matter with hockey federation authorities and the idea was appreciated by everyone."