VIJAYAWADA: For encouraging sports talent among rural students, the State government is proposing to tie up with Tenvic, a sports institute founded by legendary cricketer Anil Kumble. Officials of the government say that before entering a pact with Tenvic, they will give coaching to students from Class IV to Class VI in athletics.
As a first step, the State government has prepared a plan to develop 3,000 playfields, making use of the funds under the MGNREGA. For land levelling and other necessary infrastructure, the government will spend `5 lakh for developing each playfield.Out of the 3,000 playfields, the government will select 100 and will start imparting training to students.
Explaining about the concept, Sports and Youth Advancement Special Chief Secretary LV Subramanyam said that students would be given training in athletics (jumps, throws and running) at selected centres. Training will be given under hub and spoke model and there will be four training centres under one hub. A specialist coach from abroad will impart training to students as well as Physical Education Teachers (PETs) in athletics.
“Around 150 to 200 students will be given training in each centre. As athletics is mother of sports, initially, we will train the students in athletics. After completion of training, we will select the talented students and send them to Tenvic Sports Management. There, students are free to select their choice of sports and games,’’ he said.
Stating that students in rural areas, despite having talent, are not coming forward in sports, Subramanyam said that cognitive ability generally will be among children until eight years and it is better for them to enter into sports and games by that time. Not only students, it will also help the athletic coaches to get coaching certificate as they will also be given training at the hubs by coaches, who were certified by International Athletic Federation.
