Sports & Leisure

Until three years ago, the municipal school students participated only in interschool competitions. However, in the recent times, many of them have fared well at the state and national level swimming and wrestling tournaments. Three students, who live in slums, have also participated in the World Yoga Championship in 2006.

Speaking to TOI, municipal school board chief Sudhakar Tambe confirmed that the board is making the moves to start a Krida Prabodhini. "We need to seek sanction of the state government to start such a school and the procedure is a lengthy one. But, we have started with the procedures and are still at a nascent stage," Tambe said.

Tambe added that one of the time-consuming factors is to finalise the structure of the way the school will be formed. "The idea to start the sports school is to encourage those students who have the talent but are deprived of the facilities. The basic idea is to select promising students who will stay full-time at the school, where they will be provided sports related coaching and regular studies. But, we are yet to plan how exactly the school will be structured," he said.

Shrikant Deshpande, joint secretary, ASPM, confirmed that the organisers had a plan to have such an exhibition. "Panditji has recently received Bharat Ratna and we want to do something big to recognise his work. There is a plan of arranging an exhibition of photographs capturing different moods of Pandit Joshi. We have not finalised the proposal officially but the idea is definitely there," he said.

The Pune International Marathon will be conducted by the Pune International Marathon Trust (PIMT) under the aegis of the Athletic Federation of India (AFI).

PIMT Chairman and city Suresh Kalmadi, who is also the President of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), on Wednesday told a press conference that the event conducted as a "Race against AIDS" will feature long distance runners from 23 countries.

 The annual event, having caught the imagination of the people will also have over 50,000 runners in various age groups for boys and girls, offering a total prize money of Rs 25 lakh.

The athletes from Kenya, Tanzania and Ethiopia, Sweden, United Kingdom, South Africa, Ukraine, Denmark, Germany, Slovenia, Scotland, Russia, Kazakistan, Pakistan, Morocco, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Nepal, Slovkia, Sri Lanka, Australia, Mauritius and hosts, India will be taking part in this marathon.

With four days left for the tournament to commence, Natasha Khan, Jade Windley, Jade Curtis from Great Britain and Korina Perkovic from Germany arrived in the city on Wednesday and have begun practising for the $25000 tournament at the Deccan Gymkhana tennis courts here.

Natasha Khan and Jade Windley are from Brighton, Sussex, and train at a tennis academy called Brighton Esporta, under Guy Galpin, former international tennis payer at the junior and senior level. Khan is currently ranked 641 in the world and has played in previous editions of the tournament. Windley, who is 18 years old, won the bronze medal in the women's doubles category of the tennis event at the recently concluded Commonwealth Youth Games. She is ranked 879th in the world.

Jade Curtis trains at a tennis academy at Saltash, Cornwall, under her coach and father Jason Spence. She is ranked 489th in the world and has participated in the women's doubles event of Wimbledon in 2007. German girl Korina Perkovic is from the HTV tennis academy in Frankfurt and is training under Mike Schiller and Mischa Gropper. She is ranked 471st in the world and is in good form after winning a $ 10000 tournament in Cremona, Italy.

Eighteen of the 20 vehicles will now be available for people to take a joyride when they visit the Rajiv Gandhi Zoological Park at Katraj and the P L Deshpande Garden on Sinhagad Road.

Two of the vehicles will come in handy for garbage disposal.

The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) had bought these vehicles for Rs 6 lakh each and had given them to the CYG organisers for transporting the athletes.

"We shall now use the 18 passenger vehicles at Katraj Zoo and P L Deshpande Garden for the visitors. The two cargo carriers will be used to shift garbage from a couple of ward offices," said PMC garden superintendent Yashwant Khaire.

Kazveen Umrigar, director of the Rajiv Gandhi Zoological Park, said that out of the 18 passenger vehicles, five would be made available within 10 days. "Depending on the response, we shall add more vehicles," she said. Umrigar also added that some of these vehicles had suffered minor damage and would be repaired.

JN Petit had a confident start and passed the ball around well. They took a couple of attempts on goal and won a free kick in a good position but could not manage to score. Loyola then had a good spell of possession and were launching attacks on opposition goal. However, they could not get past the strong Petit defence which was orchestrated well by their captain Riyan Yadgiri. Ten minutes ahead of halftime, Yadgiri had an excellent opportunity to give his team the lead through a free kick. But he failed to convert the opportunity as the keeper saved his shot well. In the very next move, at the other end, Loyola nearly took the lead when their player's shot went an inch over the target. Both defences remained strong and the half ended goalless.

The resort, which will be constructed in an area of 250 acres, will incorporate a residential tennis academy called Jimmy Connors Tennis Academy, an 18-hole PGA Golf course, a five star hotel and SPA surrounded by 100 exclusive villas. "We will be focusing on quality and style with superb sporting facilities. Today, we see the start of it with the inception of the first Jimmy Connors Tennis Academy in India," said Macleod.

"Being a tennis player and staying just behind the Deccan Gymkhana tennis courts since childhood, I have grown up playing and following the game of tennis and legends like Jimmy Connors. We are exploring various opportunities of working with Jimmy Connors," said Jayant Pawar.

When Connors was asked why he chose India, he said,

"I believe that there is talent among the youth and they have a never-say-die attitude. These are two essential qualities that make a champion. Also people from Savills and Solaris have been very cooperative, thus making this whole process much easier." He also said that he would be looking for players who are willing to make tennis their top priority. "Our aim is to groom those players who are truly interested in the game and gradually improve upon them," he said.

Kalmadi conceded that the IOA had proposed cricket for the Games during the bidding process, but stressed that he was not for it personally. "Personally, I wouldn't be in favour of bringing cricket to the Commonwealth Games," Kalmadi told journalists.

He agreed that cricket is a good game, but felt that if included it would divert attention from all regular events at the Commonwealth Games.

The IOA president said India was all set to bid for 2020 Olympic Games in Delhi, following what he predicted would be a good display at the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

After the success of Indian players in the Beijing Olympics, Kalmadi said Indian sports was going through good times.

The government's announcement of Rs 700 crore for training Indian players for the Commonwealth Games would encourage many to try and win medals for the country, he said.

Over the next few minutes, the sight of a double-decker boat thrust in a gravel pit becomes hard to miss. This piece is still a work in progress. But two years ago, Sunny Water Sports became the first local manufacturer of such two-storeyed luxury boats in India. It was the shape of things to come.

In the period since, it has built ties with original equipment manufacturers, dealers and equipment suppliers in Hungary and Pittsburgh, US, translating into orders beyond its domestic business. "In India, water-sports products range across three categories, but the requirements in Hungary are far more specialised," says Sunny Sebastian, Managing Director of Sunny Water Sports Products. "Boats there are classified by size, weight, gender, etc."

More recently, an order for Hungarian company Regatta 2000 saw Sunny Water Sports develop 150 units--kayaks and row boats--that will feature in the Beijing Olympics this August. For Sebastian, who founded the company in 1990, the voyage has taken its own course, chiefly because he operates in a sports category that is relatively isolated in India: water sports. In the initial years, it would have been hard to gauge the level of interest in this business. But it has evolved--and the voyage has been one to cherish.

Buoyant phase
"Way back in 1990, we started with one or two products. Today, we have more than 110 types of boats to offer," says Sebastian, attributing the rising demand to a technology shift in water sports. He likens this shift to the 1980s' trend in tennis--demand for lightweight equipment. "More and more tennis players moved from wooden racquets to graphite ones back then. It is the same now for kayaks and canoes," he explains.

The two-day Championship, which is being held under the aegis of Maharashtra Amateur Athletics Association (MAAA) and Arjun Prabhodini of Mumbai, assumes importance as it provides an opportunity for the athletes to earn their berth in the ensuing 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games, scheduled to be held at the Shiv Chhatrapati Sports complex here from October 12 to 18.

Speaking to reporters today, MAAA Secretary General Pralhad Sawant said the inter-zonal athletics championship, to be held at Jamshedpur between August 20 to 22, will be the last chance for the athletes to cement their places in the Indian squad.

A decision to this effect was taken and players can now contribute through a bank account especially created for the purpose, a press release issued by the Maharashtra Olympic Association on Saturday said.

MP Suresh Kalmadi, also chairman of the CYG organising committee, had been receiving requests from former Olympians, Arjuna awardees, Shiv Chhatrapati, Dhanchand and Padmashree recipients to include their contribution in installing the statue. These players and various sports associations in the state had conducted a meeting in this regard and submitted their request to Kalmadi and so a committee, under the chairmanship of the MP was formed.

A special account for collection of this contribution has been opened with the Bank of Maharashtra and willing players can deposit their contribution in Shri Shiv Chhatrapati Statue Committee, Sports city, Pune, account no 60008771966 at any BOM branch across the country.

Sporting greats from the state, including Harishchandra Birajdar, Padmashree Gopalrao Phadke, shooter Anjali Vedpathak, former Olympian Kamlesh Mehta, Dhyanchand awardee Smita shirole-Yadav, Shiv Chhatrapati awardee Manisha Ghate, Gurbans Kaur, Nita Talavlikar among others will be contributing for the cause, added the communiqué.

The stadium was constructed in 1994 and named after Shivaji, however, the stadium never had any indicative structure after his name. In view of the same, it was decided to install a statue of Shivaji at the backdrop of the Commonwealth Youth Games (CYG) to be conducted at the stadium in October.

The realisation dawned that PCMC never had a sports policy at the first meeting of the newly constituted sports committee held last week where the members expressed their annoyance and called for urgent steps to create basic sports infrastructure and improve the existing facilities. "The committee has directed the administration to submit a draft of the sports policy," said civic sports committee chairman Ghanshyam Khedekar. "Once they submit the draft, we will make necessary changes after due deliberations with all concerned," he said.

According to committee member Babu Nair, PCMC holds only one major tournament -- the Mayor's Trophy. "We have been shocked by the raw deal given to sports in the town. That exactly is the reason why not many sports persons come to limelight from Pimpri-Chinchwad," he said.

Nair, also a Congress leader, said that it was a matter of concern that PCMC is not even thinking along the lines of schools like Jnana Prabhodhini that were sending children to foreign shores to train for Olympics. "It is important that a concrete sports policy be put in place so that in the next 10 years we could see children from Pimpri-Chinchwad shining at international level," Nair said.

However, PCMC sports in-charge, Vishnu Jadhav, said that PCMC has a sports policy that keeps changing every year. "As per the new committee and new chairman, the policy keeps changing. We hold one Mayor's Trophy tournament, and 52 State Government-directed events for school children throughout the year," he said, adding that he will be submitting the year's planning before the committee.

But Nair disagrees. "By sports policy, we don't mean holding matches and tournaments. Sports policy means promoting younger generations who could represent the country and become everyone's pride," he said.

The committee, he said, is looking at a policy that is all-encompassing. "Our policy should be aimed at identifying and encouraging sports talent, bringing about drastic improvement in existing facilities, increase the basic infrastructure across the town. It is also important that facilities match the atmosphere of a particular suburb."

For instance, he said, Bhosari is a hub for wrestlers. "So it is important that better wrestling facilities are put in place there. And in Pradhikaran you will find, badminton enthusiasts in large numbers. So there should more badminton courts in Pradhikaran," Nair said, adding that increased budget layout is also required to shore up the sports scenario in town.

Uday Bhalchandra, vice-president of the Pune District Table Tennis Association, points out that a large number of table tennis enthusiasts from Pimpri-Chinchwad regularly come to Pune to participate in matches and tournaments.

"Pimpri-Chinchwad lacks decent facilities for table tennis compared to Pune as there are only two major clubs and a few halls. Besides, there is need for coaching. Expert services should be roped in to train youngsters. If proper infrastructure is provided, the youth can undoubtedly make it big," said Bhalchandra.

At present, the PCMC spends Rs 25 lakh a year on sports related activity. It has two stadiums and eight grounds.

The championship would showcase the top-class sports facilities available in India to the rest of the world, said BAI Chief V K Verma at a media conference here.

The tournament, which will be held at the Shiv Chhatrapati Sports complex at Balewadi, will be supervised by about 150 officials, according to tournament director Girish Natu.

This is the first time the world juniors is being held in the country, which has played host to quite a few Senior Grand Prix events.

Badminton, incidentally, is one of the nine disciplines of the Commonwealth Youth Games to be held here in October prior to the world juniors.

Indian Olympic Assoction chief Suresh Kalmadi, who is the organising committee chairman of the 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games and the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, said following the world juniors some other events, including the World Railway Games and some international athletic meets, are expected to be held at the Balewadi complex here.

Lack of suitable land for the project was depriving the city of this much-needed facility. With the number of state, national and international events that take place here throughout the year, its absence felt strongly.

The PMC, along with various sports officials have zeroed in on the state-owned Baburao Sanas sports ground at Swargate. For the past three budgets, the PMC has been keeping aside funds for the purpose, but unavailability of space left the decision pending.

Pralhad Sawant, secretary of the Athletics Federation of India, Balasaheb Landge, secretary, Maharashtra Olympic Association and Raj Gulati, secretary of the Indian Weightlifting Federation, met PMC commissioner Pravinsinh Pardeshi last week and presented the matter before him. Pardeshi spoke to Nitin Kareer, divisional commissioner, since the ground is with the commisionerate, and after his approval, Pardeshi sanctioned the proposal.