Arindam Ganguly, Dipchand Bihari, OP
Bhubaneswar, July 4: With leading athletes from across Asia converging in the capital city for the Asian Athletics Championships 2017, all eyes are on Orissa at the moment. From July 5 to 9, the city will witness from up close some of the fiercest battles between competing athletes, more than 700 of whom from around 45 countries have assembled to take part in the championships. The 95-member Indian contingent will participate in 42 events — 21 for men and a like number for female contestants. The championships will bring Asia’s best to Orissa for the 22nd edition of the biggest athletics extravaganza in the continent. However, the time required to prepare for such a huge event was sparse: Merely three months ago the state government came to know it had the onerous task at hand to host the 22nd Asian Athletics Championships in the city. Government officials, however,
rose to the occasion and took up the ‘90-Day challenge’ to transform Kalinga Stadium here for the international sporting event. The stadium’s rapid makeover has been stupendous. For the championships, Olympic-level synthetic tracks have been laid and all the latest facilities including state-of-theart lighting systems, practice tracks and spectator arrangements have been put in place. Five athletes from Orissa have found a place in the 95-member Indian contingent for the championships – Dutee Chand, Shrabani Nanda, Amiya Mallick, Purnima Hembram and Jauna Murmu.
Orissa POSTconducted a rapid survey on how the city geared up to host the biggest athletic championships in Asia. We asked 65 people what impact, if any, the championships would have on the state’s sports infrastructure and whether the mega event would change the face of sports in the state. The other question OP posed was whether Bhubaneswar, a smart city, had fared well as a host nation. A majority of the respondents shared positive feelings about the sports extravaganza and its impact on sports in the state. Sriram Singh Rattan said the event would be a big motivation for sports in Orissa. The sports authorities and the state government deserve credit for setting up the requisite infrastructure in record time. The achievement is especially great since the next host, Qatar, has been preparing for the event for the past two years. Sumeet Singh Thakur said the preparations must have been really difficult considering the fact that the rainy season has already set in. “I sincerely hope rain would not play spoilsport,” he said. Jayshree Pradhhan said the event would change the status of sports in the state. Meanwhile, Dipak Samantarai,
a teacher, said it would be too optimistic on our part to say that the status of sports would change after one mega event. Infra is just one input. There are many other factors determining the status of sports. Mindset of the people and socio-economic realities too determine the overall development of sports, he said.
Durga Madhab Rath said sports should not get mixed with politics, but unfortunately in India it is hardly possible to keep sports insulated from politics, with politicians being a part of sports administration. We must focus on the development of sports rather than indulging in petty politics, he added.
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