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One of the recommendations include a sports university at the Balewadi complex

The state government has appointed a 41-member experts' committee headed by state minister of sports and youth affairs Suresh Shetty to renew the sports policy formulated in 2001.

While preparing the new policy, the committee's priorities will be to ensure that sports such as football, reach the rural youth; athletics is promoted among girls in villages and watersports get due attention. It will also focus on sports medicine, sports journalism, promotion of sports in all spheres, facilities for coaches, diet, sports kits, etc.

Speaking to TOI on Wednesday, Shetty said, "The expert committee will make its recommendations in a couple of months. Following this, we will meet chief minister Ashok Chavan to discuss our suggestions."

KEY PARAMETERS

• Promote sports among rural and urban youth
  
• Promote modern sports in rural youth
  
• Review existing infrastructure
  
• Suggest ways for optimum usage of underutilised infrastructure
  
• Create new infrastructure
  
• Promote watersports and develop necessary facilities along the coastline
  
• Establish a sports university
  
• Pay special attention to coaches and give them special facilities
  
• Better implementation of government schemes introduced for sportspersons

"To give the event some exposure at the national level, top engineering colleges such as the IITs, NITs and BITS have been given special invites," said DV Karad, chairman of MIT. "Our main aim is to help students participate in sporting events and understand the importance of sportsmanship and fitness.

Summit-09 will be a common platform for students to display their sporting skills," he added.The programme was inaugurated by former national hockey player, Mir Ranjan Negi. MC Mary Kom-Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna awardee, S VenkateshEklavaya awardee and Subrata Pal, goalkeeper of the national football team, were also present.

"This year, rowing and lawn tennis will also be events in the competition.
Rowing will be held at our Lonavala campus, the Pune campus will host lawn tennis. The 12 other events are football, volleyball, cricket, carrom, squash, water polo, swimming, baseball, badminton, table tennis, chess and basketball," said Karad.

A total of 50 engineering colleges in the city will participate in `Summit `09' while around 100 universities from outside Pune have been invited. The organisers expect around 15,000 spectators to attend the five-day event, he said.

District sports officer Rajesh Bagul told DNA that all sports events will be held with swimming and hockey events getting underway simultaneously at the Tilak Tank and Pashan and Pimpri-Chinchwad polygrass facility respectively from September 23.

"The district collector, after a meeting on Thursday, gave us the go ahead to organise the sports competitions,'' Bagul said, explaining this was necessary as for some disciplines, the national level competitions are scheduled in the first and second week of October. "If we don't conduct the district level competitions now, then the students may miss the opportunity to participate in the nationals," he said.

According to Bagul, school authorities and parents accompanying the children will have to give an undertaking that they will be responsible for any eventuality with regards to H1N1.

Students from standard X and XII participating in these games get 25 additional marks in the examination.

Source: dnaindia.com Sports events to begin soon

Although death toll due to swine flu continues to rise in the country, Table Tennis Federation of India started its 27-day special camp yesterday on outskirts of Pune, the epicentre of H1N1 viral pandemic.

"We have started training here yesterday and the players are also arriving. Facilities are excellent in the stadium. We are not facing any problem at all," Bhawani Mukherjee, chief coach of SAI for table tennis, told PTI from Balewadi.

"The weather is fine here with some spells of downpour.

The facilities have also been opened in the venue. We have started full-fledged training with technical, tactical and mental sessions," Mukherjee said.

The Table Tennis Federation of India has decided to hold a 27-day special camp, with all the core probables of next year's Delhi Games, in Pune which is the epicentre of the H1N1 virus pandemic.

"I am fine with the Federation's decision and personally have no problems attending the camp. When the federation has taken the decision, I am sure they have considered every possibility," former national champion Subhajit Saha told PTI.

"Initially, I was also a bit concerned about the disease.

But as the venue is around 13 kms from the main city, I don't think there will be any problem for us," Saha said from Gangtok.

Justices RM Savant and SB Mhase issued the order on Friday while hearing a writ petition filed by the Club of Maharashtra (CoM), co-owners of the land along with the Town Hall Commitee. The land has been leased to the PMC on the condition that it would be used only for sports purposes.

After the Nehru stadium was rented for a stage show and other activities earlier this year, the CoM filed a writ petition alleging breach of the original tri-party agreement between the CoM, the Town Hall Commitee and the PMC.

Hearing the writ petition, Justices Savant and Mhase stated: "After going through the record and the reply affidavit filed by the Respondent No. 1 (PMC), it is clear that the land in question is reserved for a playground and the petitioners and other owners of the property have handed over the possession of the said property on lease basis to the Respondent No. 1 for the purposes of being utilised as a playground. It is also an undisputed fact that the said premises are being used for other purposes, though occasionally the same is used for playground activities."

"....We cannot lose sight of the fact that in urban areas there is already a paucity of playgrounds. We, therefore, direct the Respondent No. 1 that they (PMC) shall not utilise the said land except as a playground and for sports activities either indoor or outdoor. All other activities would be expressly prohibited."

Source: Times Of India HC tells PMC to use Nehru stadium land for sports only

According to reports in certain sections of the media, the officials in the sports ministry have written a letter to the promoters of Formula One in India, JPSK Sports, saying that organising F1 races in India will not have any impact on the development of sports in the country.

JPSK had reportedly sought a remittance of around 177 crores from the ministry to be paid to the Formula One Administration for organising F1 race in India.

According to officials in the sports ministry, the money can be used for development of various disciplines rather that spending it on Formula One, which does not have a significant following in the country.

"F1 is not purely sports. It is entertainment and this venture by JKSP is a commercial initiative," a ministry source was quoted as saying by a leading newspaper.

"The proposed F1 race does not satisfy conditions which focus on human endeavour for excelling in competition with others, keeping in view the whole sports movement from Olympics downwards," said the source.

Speaking to mediapersons, the board's chairman Mahesh Ladkat said 50 students each will be admitted to the schools in the first year and the strength will be raised from next year.

"We have been working on these two projects for the last eight months. It had been observed that a lot of our students were doing well at the district and state-level sports events, with some even winning medals at the national level. These students mostly come from slums and do not have access to the proper facilities to exploit their talent. That's why it was decided to start the sports school," Ladkat said.

Students will be provided the necessary facilities, such as a proper jogging track and equipment, nutritious food and specialised coaches, Ladkat added.

"The students have been selected through a sports test battery. Although there will be no residential facility this year, we plan to start one eventually. The idea is to offer students a good environment which will help them reach greater heights in sports," Ladkat stressed.

Source: Times Of India PMC to launch sports school on Aug 19  

The Pune University Teachers' Association (PUTA) has taken up the issue with the university, demanding immediate recruitment. The university had sent a letter on May 9, 2008, asking all colleges to fill the post. But, so far the response has been poor. "PUTA has appealed to the university to take action against those colleges which have not filled the posts," said Deepak Shendkar, secretary of PUTA.

He said the local inspection committees that go to the colleges for inspection don't have members from the physical education department and hence they fail in effectively assessing the sports infrastructure.

Raghav Ashtekar, general secretary of PUTA, said the sports director's post in the university itself has been vacant for 10 years. "The last director left the job in 1998 and after that the university has not made any efforts to fill the vacant post," he said.

Source: The Indian Express Of every 4 colleges, 3 have no coach in wannabe sports city

50 scholarships worth Rs 18,000 per annum to each unemployed women above 19 years of age for securing first/second or third position in individual events only in the senior national championships held between 1-1-2007 to 31-12-2007 organised by the concerned National Sports Federation.

10 scholarships of Rs 10,000 per annum each to women having master's degree in Physical Education and doing Mphil/Ph.D in Physical Education, in any recognised Physical Education college in India.

Eligible Sportswomen should write to the Executive Director (A), SAI NS NIS, Moti Bagh, Patiala-147001 (Punjab) for details and prescribed application form. The application can also be downloaded from our website www.nis.org.

The last date for the receipt of duly completed applications is 28 th February, 2009.

The Ad-Hoc-Committee headed by the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) President Suresh Kalmadi entrusted with the task of looking after the affairs of Indian hockey.

The Delhi High Court had ordered to submit a concrete action plan concerning the election.

The IHF under the stewardship of KPS Gill failed to conduct the national championship for the last two years.

The championship was last held in 2006.

The national game of hockey has always been the bone of contention between the hierarchy power. After dislodging Ashwini Kumar from the helm, it was the reign of Dr MAM Ramaswamy, which restored some semblance of nationality as Indian won the World Cup in Kuala Lumpur.

Source: deepikaglobal.com National Hockey Championship postponed again

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.