KARIMNAGAR: MLA Gangula Kamalakar, Karimnagar collector Sarfaraz Ahmed and other officials of Archery Academy inaugurated archery training sessions at police parade ground on Thursday. The MLA sanctioned `7 lakh from MLA quota and `1 lakh personally for the academy. He said that excellence in sports could go a long way in building the image of a district. He appreciated the collector, CP and MCK commissioner K Shashanka for striving hard to develop Karimnagar. The collector called upon philanthropists to come forward to encourage sportspersons. High-quality archery kits and proteinous food were distributed among the archery aspirants. Additional DCP S Srinivas, ACP rural T Usha Rani and other police officers were present.
Earlier, training sessions were started at police training centre in Karimnagar in 2014, but the classes stopped due to bifurcation of the state. Commissioner of Police VB Kamalasan Reddy took the initiative to restart the classes as they would help archery aspirants from the police department.
Dodderaveni Srinivas, a coach, said, “There is no support from the sports department. We ran the institute for six years till 2014, when it disrupted due to district re-organization. Now, 20 aspirants are being trained in City Police Training Centre. Equipment of global standard has been acquired. Earlier, 10 archers secured medals in national-level events,” he informed. Srinivas has qualified for national-level competitions which will be held in Goa in November, 2018.