Thaindian News

New Delhi, Mar 16 (ANI): Sports Minister Ajay Maken today said that the preparation of nation teams for XXX London Olympic Games got under way.

Taking to reporters after visiting the National Hockey Training Camp at the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium here, Maken said: “Taking a cue from the preparation of the Indian Team for the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games 2010, it is proposed to provide continuous training to Indian Teams under various disciplines. The XXX Olympic Games is to be held in London between July 27 to August 13, 2012.”

“The Indian Contingent needs to make a strong presence at this most prestigious multi-disciplinary mega international sports event, ” he added.

He further said that in the last Olympics at Beijing, 55 Indian athletes had qualified for the various events.

“We are now working towards the goal of increasing this number through a comprehensive scheme of continuous training of athletes in the next 15 months. A talent pool of approximately 450 athletes will be trained continuously during the next 15 months,” he added.

He said there are 26 disciplines in XXX Olympic Games at London-2012 [Baseball & Softball part of Beijing Olympic Games 2008, removed from the list of sports at London Olympic Games 2012].

Maken said that Indian teams will make concerted efforts to qualify in about 16 disciplines, namely Archery, Athletics, Badminton, Boxing, Gymnastics (Artistic - men), Hockey, Judo, Rowing, Sailing, Shooting, Swimming, Table Tennis, Taekwondo, Tennis, Weightlifting and Wrestling.

Giving details about sporting infrastructure, Maken stated that SAI has extremely good sporting infrastructure for training facilities in Delhi now.

“Training Camp for the National teams in the disciplines of Shooting (Men/Women), Hockey (Men/Women), Gymnastics (Men/Women), Judo and Swimming (Men/Women) will be held in these SAI Stadia in Delhi.Training camps for other disciplines will be held in other SAI Centres, such as, NSNIS Patiala, Kolkata, Bangalore, Gandhinagar, Sub-Centre, Guwahati, Sonepat, Bhopal and Sub-Centre, Lucknow,” he added.

He also said that it is planned to have continuous training-cum-foreign exposure/competitions for the trainees in all the 16 identified disciplines for about 220-250 days in the run up to the Olympic Games.

“The International calendar for Archery, Shooting and Hockey is enclosed at Annexure-II. The best possible facilities for boarding and lodging have been provided to the campers at Delhi in ITDC hotel and Haryana Tourism Hotel to give them the best possible amenities to help them enhance their performance,” he added. (ANI).