New Delhi: Union Minister of Finance and Information & Broadcasting, Arun Jaitley graced the National Finals 2016 of GAIL-Indian Speedstar, an initiative by GAIL (India) Limited to spot, screen, select and nurture the talents in athletics. The finals held on 12th May 2016 at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, New Delhi saw the participation of 75 shortlisted kids from different districts of India out of which top 9 athletes were selected.
The event started with March past of athletes contingent. It also saw performances from Indian Idol winner Ananya Sritam Nanda and Zenith Dance troupe who sizzled the stage with their Youth centric contemporary dance performance. Also present at the event were Dharmendra Pradhan - Union Minister of State (I/C) for Petroleum and Natural Gas Government of India, Meenakshi Lekhi, Member of Parliament, New Delhi constituency, B C Tripathi, Chairman & MD, GAIL (India) Ltd., National Selection Committee members legendary P.T. Usha, Olympians Rachita Mistry, Anuradha Biswal and Asian and Commonwealth Games medalist, Kavita Raut and brand ambassador of GAIL Indian Speedstar Dutee Chand.
Among the top 9 kids selected from the National Trials are 6 girls and 3 boys: Tai Bahmane (Maharshtra) under-14 category 200, Sukhi Baskey (Odisha) under-14 100m & 200m, Cynthia Francis (New Delhi) under-14 200m, Nisar Ahmed (New Delhi) under-14 100m, Nehal S (New Delhi) under-14 200m, Sanika Nate (Maharashtra) under-14 100m, Akshay Nain (New Delhi) under-17 200m, Maria Karachiwala (Maharashtra) under-17 200m and Jisna Mathew (Kerala) under-17 100m. These athletes will be provided with a world class coaching for over a period of 4 years with an ultimate objective of one of these athletes to represent India at the 2020/2024 Olympics.
Arun Jaitley, Hon’ble Union Minister of Finance and Information & Broadcasting Government of India said, ‘India has huge talent in the arena of athletics and track & field events but we have not been able to capitalize on this latent potential due to lack of opportunities and adequate training facilities. With GAIL’s welcome move to go to districts across states under the able guidance of legendary PT Usha, I am confident that we will now win several medals at Olympics. I congratulate GAIL on their excellent endevaour and call upon India Inc to identify talent in other sport disciplines for training and participation in Olympics. I wish the chosen athletes all the very best.’
Dharmendra Pradhan - Union Minister of State (I/C) for Petroleum and Natural Gas Government of India said, ‘This is a commendable initiative on Part of GAIL India to pick up potential athletes from the grass root, choose the best among them through healthy competition and then train the best for the world’s largest sporting spectacle of Olympics. I am confident that the chosen nine will very train hard in the next four years and bring laurels for India in the track event when Olympics are held at Tokyo in 2020. We assure them all support and wish them best of luck in their quest for glory.”
B C Tripathi, Chairman & MD, GAIL (India) Ltd. said, ‘Our initiative aimed at scouting young talent in the field of athletics from remote areas/disadvantaged communities of India. We endeavor to provide world-class training to the winning athletes of the Speed Star contest for preparing them to compete at Olympics 2020/2024 for various track events. I am extremely happy with the response we got and I hope that these kids will benefit immensely from this initiative.’
Speaking at the occasion, Anuradha Biswal said, ‘We are proud to have shortlisted 9 extremely talented kids from different districts of India. We successfully executed the project pan India with deep penetration to the rural areas of the country and identified the local talent from these regions. We have identified kids with exceptional run time and we are hopeful that with the access to world class coaching, physiotherapy; mental conditioning and others support services they will be competing at the international platforms and Olympics for India.’
GAIL Indian Speedstar is a CSR initiative by GAIL (India) Limited, which aims to spot, screen, select and groom young athletes in the age group of 11-17 years in 100m, 200m and 800m track events across the country. The event was part of the initiative taken by National Yuva Cooperative Society (NYCS) as part of nationwide campaign to find out athletes for 2020/2024 Olympics. The initiative in its first year kick-started earlier this year with initial trials conducted at 55 districts across 10 states in which more than 25,000 children participated out of which 899 children finally made it to the State level Camp and Selection. National Yuva Cooperative Society has tied up with M/s Anglian Medal Hunt Company as its Technical Partner for this project.
