Belsajar Horo, 18, joins the illustrious list of hockey stars to come from the tribal district of Sundargarh, Orissa. A find of the Sports Authority of India’ s Special Area Game Centre, Sundargarh, has earned his maiden Indian jersey in the recently concluded 6th Junior Asia Cup, Hyderabad. India retained the championship with a hard fought win of South Korea (3-2), thus marking a ‘golden’ beginning of Horo’s international hockey ride. Hyderabad marked not just this midfielder’s golden beginning, but also a great dawn for his institution, SAG Centre-Sundargarh, as he has earned the distinction of being its first regular inmate to don the national jersey.

Belsajar Horo, the promising midfielder was born on 29th October 1991 in a tribal farmer family from the village, Barupara, near Rajgangpur of Sundargagh district. The youngest of six brothers and sisters whose father Manual Horo is a small farmer. Boro picked up the game of hockey at the early age like other boys of his village. While he was studying in GEL Church High School, Rajgangpur he got selected for the State Hockey Hostel at Sundargarh in 2002, where Tez Kumar Xess taught him the fundamentals of the game.

Boro showed promise among the newcomers. It was therefore natural that in 2003 when the SAI opened Special Area Games Centre at Sundargarh, he was moved there so that he would get better facilities and exposure.

Coach P.K.Sarangi honed the youngster’s hockey skills with utmost care and dedication. During those four years stay there, Boro got amble opportunities to play in various national level tournaments.

His performances in those events attracted the attention of Delhi based Air India Academy. He joined the famed Academy January last year. Where he got further chances to polish his potential with the help of junior national coach A.K.Bansal. The Academy also gave him a forum to rub his shoulders with best junior players of the country.

However, due to temporary closure of the AI Academy in December 2007, Belsajar had to return to his base, SAI-Sundargarh though his stint in Delhi was good enough for his talents to blossom.

He was called to national junior camps in 2007 and 2008. Finally, he won the confidence of the selectors and got into the team Indian to figure in the Junior Asia Cup Hockey – which India won with much fanfare at Hyderabad.

Belsajar is elated to play for the country. He is aware that he has miles to go before getting elevated to senior grade. He realizes tough road lies ahead of him to realize this dream of making it to the top. The colt is aware he needs to work hard to make room for himself in the senior team– he is surely working towards that end.

Meantime, his coach P.K.Sarangi is happy that his ward Belsajar will inspire other boys and girls of his centre. “Certainly, they will try to emulate horo’s feat”, said the beaming coach.