Following the new sports policy announced for the period 2017-22 with a mission to groom sports talent, the State government bets big on ‘Project Gandiva’ in identifying talent at a young age.
The long-term athletic development programme launched in 2018-19 aims to achieve medals in Olympic games in a span of ten years. The projection is simple. “Andhra Pradesh to become No.1 in the country in athletics by 2021, bag medals in Asian and Commonwealth games in 2022, compete in the Olympics in 2024 and secure medals in the year 2028,” said SETVEN Chief Executive Officer S. Lakshmi.
Simple tests
A meeting was held at Chittoor on Wednesday with the tag line ‘Finding the marks for A.P. in international sports,’ where Joint Collector V. Chandramouli indicated the likelihood of the Chief Minister formally launching the programme in the second fortnight of July. A talent search would be conducted to identify children in the age group of 10 years plus and provide them coaching.
The Sports Authority of Andhra Pradesh (SAAP) has prescribed seven simple tests to identify 70-90 boys/girls in a drive to be conducted by Physical Literacy Teachers (PLT). Trainers of international repute will be brought from Jamaica, South Africa and Europe to the State to train 100 PLTs first, who will in turn train the students.
