Though it might take some more years to budding players who participated in State Olympic Games to hone their skills and represent the country at international level as well as in Olympic Games, a start has definitely been made in Himachal Pradesh to encourage youth for Olympic glory.

The state Olympic Games organised at Hamirpur district which saw participation of over 1,100 players in the age group of 12-16 years in 11 disciplines from 22-25 June, was a step towards identify their potential.

The games also garnered good support from general public as around 50,000 people participated in Olympic Torch run in 9 districts of the state.

The one-of-its-kind State Olympic Games consisted of 11 games namely Hockey, Athletics, Boxing, Basketball, Judo, Kabaddi, Volleyball, Wrestling, Kho-Kho, Weightlifting and Shooting. The games were held in an inter-district format and the events were conducted on the format of the International Olympic Games.

For the games, HP Olympic Association (HPOA) had identified disciplines in which the youth of the state had performed better and had the potential to produce big players in the near future.

“It’s a small step towards channelising the energy of Himachali youth towards Olympic glory,” Anurag Thakur, president of HPOA and Hamirpur MP told The Statesman, adding though it would take around 10-12 years to nurture and promote sporting spirit which could lead to enhancing country’s medal tally in the event.

Thakur said the initiative was taken to improve India’s performance in Olympic Games and to carry forward the idea of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in providing better training and coaching facilities for better representation of Indian athletes. “Somebody has to take initiative to refrain the youth from falling into the trap of drug abuse and encourage them to take sports as profession,” he said.

“The state need to improve on infrastructure and other facilities needed for training purposes of the youth across the state,” he said, adding as without them, it would not be possible to nurture national and international level players.

The games were conducted on Platform to Participate and Perform Model and the HPOA would identify as to which district has more potential in producing talented players in a particular discipline.

The association would soon organise a talent hunt competition soon to select youngsters who could perform better if provided with better coaching and training facilities.

The players selected through the competition would be sent for training in top coaching academies of the country and the HPOA in collaboration with respective sport associations would bear expenses.

“The big corporate houses of the state would also be roped in to sponsor these budding players,” he added.

The games saw the participation of Olympic medal winners as Samresh Jung, Vijay Kumar, international wrestler Jagdish Kaliraman, the son of Legendary Wrestler Master Chandgi Ram, WWE star The Great Khali alias Dalip Rana, Bollywood actor Sunil Shetty and Punjabi singer Satinder Sartaaj who encouraged the budding players to perform better in their respective disciplines.