The Khelo India Youth Games to be hosted in Pune from January 9 to 20, promises to be ‘bigger and better,’ as Union Sports Minister, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore unveiled the jersey and provided the high points in front of some of the best young sporting icons here on Sunday.
Rathore announced that with 9000 sports persons, and covering college students, taking the age group from under-17 to under-21, this would be a big jump from the 3750 athletes who competed in the Khelo India School Games earlier this year. “It is just the tip of the ice berg. It is time to believe in ourselves. We can do everything’’, said the sports minister.
On the part of the official broadcaster, Star Sports, its Managing Director Sanjay Gupta, announced that there would be more hours of live coverage, apart from the addition of three languages Tamil, Telugu and Kannada, to go with the English and Hindi broadcast. A television campaign, with the cream of athletes, seeking ‘five minutes more’ to play, was also launched.
On the occasion, along with former World Champion and winner of Olympic silver and bronze medals, Sushil Kumar, the young athletes Esha Singh, Manu Bhaker, Saurabh Chaudhary, Lakshay Sheoran, Jeremy Lalrinnunga, Tababi Devi, Lakshya Sen and Srihari Nataraj sported the Youth Games attire.
Rathore said that it was an encouraging sign that three States bid for hosting the Youth Games and Maharashtra won the right.
“We had decided to host the second edition of Khelo India Games at the Shiv Chatrapati Sports Complex in Pune. Maharashtra ‘khel ki bhumi hai’, and we are trying to enhance the sports culture further with this event. We have upgraded the infrastructure so that our youth can train better in future,’’ said Vinod Tawde, the Minister of School Education, sports and youth welfare, of the Maharashtra government.
