THE Global Sports Summit reached its conclusion on Wednesday at the FICCI auditorium with a hope of seeing India among world’s top nations in sport. The speaker of day was the Beijing gold medallists Holland women’s hockey team coach Marc Lammers.
Emphasising on the possibilities and difficulties that India has with regards to improvement in sports culture and infrastructure, Lammers said that India need to bring together experts from different games to think about one common goal, that of overall improvement of sport in the country.
“ Winners should keep winning but losers also have to win. India cannot win without proper training process that produces results. India is a huge country and you have no dearth of talent but recognising and nurturing it is important.
An individual cannot make a team win. Every sportsman needs to help the other irrespective of the game they play,” said Lammers.
“ I know infrastructure is a problem so it is better to start with what you already have. Two times fifty per cent also makes hundred per cent and that is how success is achieved. India has got universities and the IT sector and they should help produce sport champions. This is the method that we used in our country,” said Lammers.
Lammers specifically spoke about India’s hockey team saying Indian players have got the talent but they need to put their efforts together to perform better not only in one particular competition but in every meet that they take part in.
“ Indian hockey teams, both men as well as women, have difficulties before them however, they also have possibilities that they can be worked upon. I believe India have a lot to look forward to especiallt with Jose Brasa as the coach. Brasa is very experienced. Winning gold in Beijing was not an easy task for us considering it was quite hot there. However, I asked my players to ignore the problems and think of winning a gold. We did that but coaching is essential,” said Lammers.
Meanwhile, Woldemeskel Kostre, coach for Ethiopian distance running team, also shared the conditions in which his athletes train.
“ Our athletes do not have proper guidance, training and equipment but they still do well. They learn that they need to run, run and run. They train barefoot yet produce results and in their comparison Indian athletes are much better off,” said Kostre. “ Ethiopian athletes get scholarships based on their performances and that helps them in reaching the top.”