KOCHI: Having got over repeated delays in fixing the dates for the 35th National Games, the Kerala State Sports Council and the Kerala Olympic Association claim that they have been working overtime to line up the best possible teams to represent the state in each discipline.
The state’s two chief sports bodies have drawn up elaborate measures to hand pick the best talent for the national spectacle. Besides planning training camps spanning from 45 days to three-months for every discipline, the sports council, along with the various sports associations, will lobby hard to bring in some medal-winning Kerala athletes currently working for institutions such as the ONGC and the Railways.
“If we can get some good outstation athletes, our prospects will definitely improve,” said Olympian Mercy Kuttan. Athletics, badminton, volleyball and basketball associations have identified a few outstation players they would like to add to their national games line-up.
KSSC secretary Binu George Varghese said the council and the associations would reach out to each athlete’s employers and will request them to loan the players to the associations for the national event.
Basketball players Murali Krishna (ONGC) and Geethu Anna Jose (Southern Railway), volleyball star Kevin Antony (Central Railway), triple jumper Renjith Maheshwary are some of the sought after athletes.
On Wednesday, the KSSC will table a master plan detailing how to constitute the selection committees and the teams at the National Games executive meeting in Thiruvananthapuram.
“We will have the probable list of almost all team members by the end of September or early October. The selected athletes will get a three-phased training camp that extends from 45 days to three months depending on the discipline. A few players will be weeded out at the end of each phase and we will have the final list by the end of December.