600 special players compete for place in floor hockey team
More than 600 participants competed in the week-long national floor hockey tournament for intellectually challenged persons, to get a place in the 16-member national team that would represent India at the World Special Games-2013 that will be held in Korea.
The matches held at Bishop Cotton School Shimla, under the aegis of Special Olympics India’s Himachal Chapter concluded today. Twenty six teams of male and female players participated from across 21 states.
The names of the 16 chosen players would be announced on Saturday, said Chairperson of Special Olympics Bharat Himachal Pradesh, Mallika Nadda. These players would be trained at special camps over the next three years.
Nadda said that participation and training of intellectually challenged persons in competitive sports has slowly started to raise hopes for rehabilitation of challenged persons.
“In Himachal, intellectually challenged cricketer Deepak Sharma (gold medalist), handball player Rajender Kumar (bronze medalist) and skiing champion Megha (gold medalist), were the first ones to excel in sports at the international level. Deepak Sharma is now working at a clerical post in Himachal Pradesh Secretariat, Rajender Kumar and Megha are coaching other intellectually challenged players under Chetna NGO,” said Nadda.
At least seven special athletes from Himachal have already been selected for competing in the upcoming Summer Olympics scheduled at Athens from June 25, 2011. Chosen players include Pawan (handball), Sushil (athletics), Ranjana and Naveen (bocce), Aman and Prabha (roller skating) and Pankaj (badminton).
Nadda said that encouraged by the performance of the special players, parents of many intellectually challenged children had been encouraged to get their children registered for special sports events. Over seven lakh special players are already registered with Special Olympics Bharat for playing 22 games.