Government will extend all help to athletes for 2012 Olympics: Maken

NEW DELHI: National camps in three disciplines signaled India’s first preparatory phase for the 2012 London Olympics. The hockey camp, which got under way at the National stadium on Wednesday, archery and shooting camps formally showed that the government was determined to help the country’s athletes extend their winning run.

India are eyeing qualification in 16 disciplines out of a possible 26 at the Games – archery, athletics, badminton, boxing, gymnastics (artistic men), hockey, judo, rowing, sailing, shooting, swimming, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, weightlifting and wrestling — and sports minister Ajay Maken said the government would support the athletes.

“We have already started training for three disciplines — shooting (Karni Singh range) archery (Kolkata) and hockey. In Beijing, 55 Indian athletes had qualified for various events. We want to increase this number. Our target is to train 450 athletes for the London Olympics in the next 15 months,” Maken said at the hockey camp on Wednesday.

The shooters’ first exposure was at an international meet in Wiesbaden, Germany (March 10-14) while the archers first test is the World Cup at Porec, Croatia from May 2-7.

Said Maken: “We will provide continuous training to Indian teams under various disciplines. The Indian contingent needs to make a strong presence at the Olympics. We will provide 3-4 star boarding facilities and training-cum-foreign exposure tours for 220-250 days for the athletes. The government will bear all the expenses.”

With the Olympics in mind, the government has already roped in 19 foreign coaches and will utilise the Commonwealth Games stadia for training, he said. Camps in shooting, hockey, gymnastics, judo and swimming will be held in Delhi while for other disciplines, SAI Centres in Patiala, Kolkata, Bangalore, Gandhinagar, Guwahati, Sonepat, Bhopal and Lucknow will be used.