By Our Correspondent
BHUBANESWAR: As per the direction of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, 5T and Nabin Odisha Chairman VK Pandian visited various sports facilities in Rourkela including the upcoming Rourkela Gymnastics Academy near the Birsa Munda Hockey Stadium on Thursday. During the visit, Secretary, Sports and Youth Services, Sh Vineel Krishna, Collector Sundargarh and other senior officials were present.
This facility will be inaugurated by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik shortly. There is lot of sports talent in Sundargarh district. To further realise the potential, the state government has been creating good quality sports infrastructure. Rourkela city has the World’s best and largest hockey stadium and also Athletic Stadium, indoor swimming pool, indoor sports facilities etc.
With the new addition of Rourkela Gymnastics Academy, many future gymnasts will emerge from this city. Sh Kartik Pandian interacted with the coaches at the Rourkela Gymnastics Academy. He said that the best imported gymnastics equipment has been installed and asked them to aim to produce international class gymnasts from Rourkela.
Later, he visited the Panposh Sports Hostel which has been regularly sending players from Odisha to the Indian Teams. He interacted with the coaches and players. Sh Kartik Pandian praised their efforts in placing Odisha on the global hockey map.
He visited the hockey facilities, hostel facilities, kitchen etc. He had breakfast with players in the dining hall. He discussed with them on the facilities, coaching, education, food etc in the hostel. The players said that they were receiving the best facilities and thanked him and Hon’ble Chief Minister for the vision towards sports development.
