No foreign coach for hockey team, says Kalmadi
Mohali: Suresh Kalmadi, president, Indian Olympic Association, visited the Markfed Shooting Range here on Saturday. He was accompanied by KS Sidhu, general secretary, Punjab Olympic Association and Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi, chief whip, Congress legislative Party, Punjab, among others.

In a brief interaction with mediapersons, Kalmadi said IOC is concentrating on the upcoming Commonwealth Youth Games, to be held in Pune next month. He said a record 71 countries would be participating in the games, making it the biggest ever.

He also said that a foreign coach will not be appointed for the men’s hockey team and Harendra Singh will remain at helm of affairs till the 2010 World Cup. On being asked for his reaction to reports that senior Congress leader from Himachal Pradesh, Vidya Stokes, is in the running for the post of vice-president of International Hockey Federation (FIH), he said he wished her good luck.

When asked for his comments on the statement made by Formula One CEO Bernie Eccolstone that Formula One Grand Prix will not take place in India before 2011, Kalmadi said he has also read about it in a newspaper and had not been officially intimated.

Kalmadi said it is a good sign that Punjab has become a hub of shooting in the country and added that IOC will provide full assistance to the state shooting association to set up stateof-the-art shooting ranges in the state as well as upgrade the existing ones.