Special Chief Secretary of Sports and Youth Services L.V. Subrahmanyam on Tuesday said that nurseries to promote gymnastics and swimming will be set up at Visakhapatnam, Kakinada and Guntur with an aim to impart rudiments to children below six years.
Speaking to The Hindu , he said these places were chosen primarily owing to availability of coaches. “These two sporting events should be introduced to children at a very young age. In several countries, champions emerge from these disciplines before children reach 13 years.”
Agreeing to the fact that the new State of Andhra Pradesh was facing an acute shortage of coaches, he disclosed that Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu had given a go-ahead to rope in 100 coaches on the contract basis.
“We are already looking out for talented coaches from all over the country. We are in touch with Andhra coaches serving in the army too. We want to invite them to strengthen sports in our State,” he added.
Mr. Subrahmanyam said Kreeda Vikasa Kendras would be set up in the 175 constituencies with an indoor stadium facility and these infrastructures would be completed in two years. “Later we will be concentrating on 650-odd mandals for sports promotion. Already we have asked the mandal administrators to set up a mandal sports authority. Our aim is take the sporting infrastructure to the doorstep of everyone.”
He said the concept of walking was spreading fast in cities and the popular concept would be promoted in the rural areas too by encouraging forming of walkers’ clubs.
He said three regional academies would be set up in three regions of the State for both boys and girls. “Concentration will be on individual sports.”
Mr. Subrahmanyam said he had invited legendary long jumper Anju George to set up a high-performance academy in Andhra Pradesh. “We need to establish high-performance academies in the State to take sporting standards to the next level,” he felt.
