Shri Ajay Maken, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Youth Affairs & Sports visited the National Hockey Training Camp at the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium here today . During his visit, Shri Maken interacted with the players and the coach, Shri Harendra Singh .

While interacting with the media persons at the Camp, Shri Maken said that 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 27th July to 13th August, 2012.  The Indian Contingent needs to make a strong presence at this most prestigious multi-disciplinary mega international sports event, the Minister added.

The Sports Minister  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.

            There are 26 disciplines in XXX Olympic Games at London-2012 (Annexure-I).[Baseball & Softball part of Beijing Olympic Games 2008, removed from the list of sports at London Olympic Games 2012]. Shri 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, Shri 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. 

Shri Maken further said that the Archery Camp for the Indian probables has started at Kolkata in January’2011 and is continuing as on date.  The Shooting camp started in Feb.’2011  Karni Singh Shooting Ranges and is continuing at the Ranges.  A detailed Action Plan has been prepared of all the Teams in this regard. 

            The Sports Minister 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, Shri Maken added.

Annexure-I

Disciplines in XXX Olympic Games at London to be held

from 27^th July to 13^th August, 2012

[Baseball & Softball part of Beijing Olympic Games 2008, removed from the list of sports at London Olympic Games 2012]

Annexure-II

Training cum foreign/ International exposure competitions of Indian Team prior to London Olympics 2012

Hockey Men

Hockey Women

Training cum for Foreign/ International exposure competitions of Indian Teams prior to London Olympics 2012

Archery

·         The participation in the International competition for the year 2012 to be finalized eventually.
Annexure -II

Training cum foreign/ International exposure competitions of Indian Team prior to London Olympics 2012

Shooting (Rifle & Pistol)

Shotgun

RM/JL