BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha government on Saturday said that its ambitious project, the High Performance Sports Academy will start functioning in the city from the coming financial year, IANS reports.
“The state government has decided to set up High Performance Sports Academy at Bhubaneswar. It will have high performance sports centres in nine different types of sports. Steps are being expedited to start operation of the centres from coming financial year,” Odisha government chief secretary A.P. Padhi was quoted as saying to IANS.
The state government is setting up the academy in collaboration with the International Association of Athletic Federations (IAAF) and the Athletics Federation of India (AFI). Maintaining that Bhubaneswar has been designated as sports capital by the state, Padhi said the government is committed to promoting various types of sports from panchayat to international level events.
2018 has been a fine year for Odisha’s development in sport which culminated with the Hockey World Cup recently. It was preceded by the government signing MoUs with 7 top Indian corporates and a deal with Indian national badminton coach Pullela Gopichand to develop the sport at grassroots level through infrastructure.
The government also pledged to sponsor the Indian Arrows Under-15 football team by providing them with facilities to train, making the state the team’s new home. It is also the official sponsor of the Indian men’s and women’s hockey teams too.
