1. Home
  2. NITI Aayog drafts action plan targeting 50 medals at 2024 Olympics

NITI Aayog drafts action plan targeting 50 medals at 2024 Olympics

September 23, 2016

New Delhi, Sep 23: Following the disappointment with India’s performance at the Rio Olympics 2016, The Indian think tank National Institution for Transforming India or NITI Aayog on Wednesday has announced an action plan named “Let's Play” with an aim to improve India’s medal prospects in the future so that the country wins at least 50 medals at the 2024 Summer Olympic Games.

indian

The 20-point plan highlights some key areas that require improvement. These action points have been divided into a short-term vision (4 to 8 years) and a medium to long-term vision (8 to 15 years).

The plan also aims to initiate larger debate among stakeholders and public at large on how to improve sporting performance in the country.

Announcing the initiative, NITI Aayog tweeted: "NITI Aayog to release 'Let's Play' - An Action Plan for Revitalising Sports in India. Our target: 50 Olympic Medals!"

"We are a large and diverse nation. Sports can be a great means of national integration," Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on NITI Aayog's website.

The points include targeting a group of priority sports, organisation of sportspersons into three groups for each priority sport, harnessing the potential of indigenous and regional sports, world class coaches and a grading system for coaches.

Special emphasis will be given to implement the National Sports Code and Sports Bill, to formulate an injury insurance scheme, strengthening and scaling-up of existing Sports Authority of India (SAI) training centres and facilitating creation of sports academies for individual sports among others.

Releasing the document, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said the short term and long term targets include winning at least 50 medals at the 2024 Olympics and to tap potential sportspersons from the tender age of eight years.

The panel has also advocated that the age limit for training of sportspersons be lowered from the current 12 years to eight years. Besides, the NITI Aayog has also advocated identifying talent for sports among five-year-old children.

It also felt that a few sports be identified as had been done by Kenya and Jamaica to help Indian young talents to excel.

"To improve the performance of sports and demonstrate medal winning performance, it is important to prioritize ten sports and develop an outcome oriented action plan for each of these sports. Countries like Kenya and Jamaica participate in only two Olympics sports but have managed to get a medal tally of 100 and 78 respectively," a NITI Aayog official said.

In the short term plans, the panel suggests facilitating creation of more sports academies for individual sports, implementing a National Sports Code and Sports Bill and the long term measures include development of sports infrastructure through PPP mode.

NITI Aayog officials said that the National Sports Code and Sports Bill, 2013, which is stuck for a long time, needs to be enacted at the earliest to ensure structural changes in policies concerning sports administrators and the coaches.

The bill seeks to fix terms and tenures of the sports administrators. The bill also seeks to fix age limit of sports administrators, a move allegedly opposed by the political class.

Comments

Add new comment

About text formats
  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
May 27,2020

Bengaluru, May 27: Pakistan pacer Shoaib Akhtar has revealed that he was never able to dismiss Inzamam-ul-Haq in the nets.

The Rawalpindi Express praised the former Pakistan skipper and said Inzamam could see the ball one second earlier than the rest of the batsmen could.

"Honestly, I don't think I could ever get him (Inzamam) out, he had the time and I always felt he saw the ball a second earlier than the rest of the batsmen because I had a complicated action unlike Brett Lee, I felt I could never dismiss Inzamam-ul-Haq," Akhtar told Sanjay Manjrekar in a videocast hosted by ESPNCricinfo.

"I couldn't get him out in the nets, I think he could see the ball a second before anyone else," he added.

Inzamam played 120 Tests and 378 ODIs for Pakistan.

He finished his career with 20,569 runs across all formats.

The right-handed batsman called time on his career in 2007 and he played his last Test against South Africa in Lahore.

On the other hand, Akhtar played 224 matches for Pakistan in international cricket and took 444 wickets across all formats.

The Rawalpindi Express last played an ODI in 2011 as he played against New Zealand in the 50-over World Cup.

Comments

Add new comment

About text formats
  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
Agencies
August 3,2020

Silverstone, Aug 2: Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton on Sunday won his seventh British Grand Prix title after a dramatic last-lap at the Silverstone Circuit.

Hamilton and teammate Valtteri Bottas were at the first and second spot respectively until tyre drama struck.

Second-placed man Bottas was the first to suffer as his tyre deflated on lap 50, resulting in 11th place finish. Hamilton also suffered a similar issue before the final few seconds of the race.

However, with Max Verstappen having opted to pit a few laps from the end to try and claim the fastest lap, Hamilton had enough time in hand to just cross the line first, five seconds ahead of Verstappen and the third-placed Ferrari of Charles Leclerc.

McLaren's Carlos Sainz had been set to finish fourth, but his own last lap tyre issue saw him eventually come home P13, allowing Renault's Daniel Ricciardo to claim fourth, following a late pass on the sister McLaren of Lando Norris.

Renault's Esteban Ocon finished sixth, having enjoyed a race-long battle with Lance Stroll's Racing Point, with Pierre Gasly having enjoyed a fine race to finish seventh for AlphaTauri.

Alex Albon finished eighth for Red Bull, having recovered from a lap 1 tussle with the Haas of Kevin Magnussen that saw him fall to last, while Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel rounded out the top 10, Vettel holding off a late charge form the recovering Mercedes of Bottas.

Comments

Add new comment

About text formats
  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
April 22,2020

Dhaka, Apr 22: Star Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan has decided to auction the bat he used during the 2019 ODI World Cup to help raise money for the fight against deadly coronavirus pandemic.

Shakib, who is currently serving a two-year ban from all forms of cricket -- one of which is suspended -- for not reporting corrupt approaches, is the second Bangladeshi cricketer after wicket-keeper batsman Mushfiqur Rahim to auction a personal cricketing gear to raise money for the cause.

"I had said before that I want to put up a bat for auction. I have decided to auction the bat I used in the 2019 World Cup. It's a favourite bat of mine," Shakib said during a Facebook live session.

The 33-year-old all-rounder had a hugely successful World Cup in England last year, scoring 606 runs in eight matches at an average of 86.57, which included two centuries and five fifties.

Besides, he also picked up 11 wickets in the tournament and became the only cricketer to score 600 plus runs and scalp 10 wickets in a single edition of the World Cup.

"I had a good World cup with the bat and ball. There were some good performances especially with the bat. I had used a single bat throughout the World Cup and even used tapes on it to get through games," Shakib said.

"It's not that this bat has only been used at the World Cup. I have scored over 1500 runs with this bat and had used it prior to the tournament and after it as well.

"Although I like the bat a lot but I have decided to put it up for auction with the thought that maybe it can leave some contribution to forming a fund during the ongoing coronavirus crisis."

The money raised from the auction will go to the Shakib Al Hasan foundation.

"This is a very special bat to me, but my people are even more special to me," Shakib said.

Comments

Add new comment

About text formats
  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.