Minister inaugurates new track

Athletics : Athletes in Coorg to benefit from new eight-lane facility

 Union Sports Minister Vijay Goel inaugurated an eight-lane synthetic track at Ashwini Nachappa’s Sports Foundation (ASF) arena here on Sunday.

The international standard track, constructed in partnership with the Sports Authority of India (SAI), will be used to train athletes who are part of the ASF programme as well as host camps for national athletes who are part of SAI. Currently, eight ASF athletes are part of SAI programme while about 10 have represented  Karnataka at the junior national level.  The new track is a welcome boost for athletes in Coorg, who had to train elsewhere to fuel their ambitions.

While complementing Ashwini for her efforts, Goel said that a task force would be constituted to prepare a roadmap for athletes participating in Olympics, Asian Games and Commonwealth Games.

“The ministry would discuss on the formation of task force with winners of sports awards, athletes and ministers of sports from various states. The task force is being constituted to ensure that the country gets a good number of medals in next three Olympics — 2020, 2024 and 2028.”

Goel also said a talent search web portal would be launched on January 21 where athletes from rural cities can upload their achievements.

A delighted Ashwini thanked the sports ministry and the State government for installing the track at her academy. “The world has galloped ahead in infrastructure and training methods. Performance today has become a highly evolved science and it is our intent at ASF that we catch up with the world on the both the fronts.

“I am extremely thankful to the Government of India, that of Karnataka as well as to the Sports Authority of India for supporting the building of this track. It was wonderful that Shri Vijay Goel and Shri Pramod Madhwaraj (Minister for Youth Empowerment and Sports, Government of Karnataka) agreed to inaugurate the track. We at ASF really appreciate this gesture,” she stated.