KATRA, JUNE 12 - A 3-day Senior National Level Archery Championship for Men and Women will be held at the Shrine Board’s Sports Complex at Katra in November this year. As many as 300 archers from across the country will participate in this mega event. Para Archery National Championship will also be held along with this tournament.
This was decided at the 3rd meeting of the Governing Council of the Shrine Board’s Sports Complex held at Spiritual Growth Centre here. Dr. Ashok Bhan, Member of the Shrine Board and Chairman of the Governing Council of the Sports Complex, chaired the meeting. Mr. Ajeet Kumar Sahu, Chief Executive Officer, and Mr. Anshul Garg, Additional CEO of the Board; prominent sportspersons i.e. Mr. Sanjeeva Singh, former International Archer (Arjuna/Dronacharya Awardee); and Mr. Samaresh Jung, International Shooter (Arjuna Awardee); besides Mr. Ashok Kumar, Director Sports of the Shrine Board, all of whom are members of the Governing Council, participated in the deliberations. Mr. Ranjit Kalra, Member, J&K State Sports Council, attended the meeting as a Special Invitee. Dr. Arvind Karwani, Dy. CEO of the Shrine Board was also present.
The Governing Council discussed modalities for creating centres of excellence in some of the identified sports and progressively developing Shrine Board’s Sports Complex on the pattern of Sports Academy to secure desired results. These centres of excellence will be created in sports and games having very high potential to fetch medals at the state, national and international level competitions. Accordingly, the Governing Council identified four disciplines of Archery, Shooting, Athletics (long distance run and throws) and Basketball which will be the areas of intensive focus as of now and wherever required infrastructure and other logistics will be further strengthened to go whole-hog to produce top sportspersons in these sports.
The meeting also discussed the proposal for financial support to some of the promising sportspersons of the state, who have established their credentials in the national level competitions, for advanced training so that their game is improved considerably and they can successfully compete in the international level championships and win medals.
Reviewing the calendar of sports activities of the Board for the current financial year, the meeting took stock of preparations for organising a national level Marathon Race at Katra for which renowned national and international level marathon runners will be invited to participate. It also reviewed the arrangements for hosting other events planned for 2017-18. Relevant to recall that Governor N. N. Vohra, Chairman of the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board, has directed the CEO for organising major events in identified sports and games at the Shrine Board’s Sports Complex at Katra during current fiscal and develop it as a hub of sports activities and coaching facilities for the benefit of youth and the society at large.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Bhan said that coaching is an important area which needs maximum focus, along with talent hunt and preparing and updating data base of children participating in various events held at the Sports Complex to tailor the strategies accordingly for maximising results. He said that more and more youth from the rural and remote areas need to be associated with the sports activities being undertaken by the Board so that a much larger number of boys and girls get benefitted from the facilities put in place at the Sports Complex. He added that as a prelude to the hosting of National Level Archery Championship in November, efforts should be made to organise state and zonal level championships in this as well as other disciplines.
For strengthening sports infrastructure in various educational institutions in and around Katra, the Governing Council approved a proposal for providing sports material and equipments of worth about Rs. 5.00 lakh to some of the identified schools in and around Katra.
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