Bhubaneswar: Odisha government on Wednesday signed an MoU with Tata Steel to set up high performance centres in Olympic sports — archery and sport climbing.
The pact was signed in the presence of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. This will add to Odisha’s bouquet of such centres.
Odisha Tata Archery Academy and Odisha Tata Steel Adventure Foundation Sport Climbing Academy will be set up here for development of athletes in the disciplines. Regional development centres will also be set up for archery and both the academies will run grassroots programmes, according to the agreement.
Led by experts, these high-performance centres will identify and nurture exceptional talents, empowering them to compete at national and international levels and provide top-notch infrastructure and training facilities.
These centers will also serve as hubs for aspiring athletes to realise their full potential. The academies will feature players who are scouted from the state sports hostels and state-level and national-level programmes.
The athletes will also have access to facilities of the sports and youth services department for their holistic development, which will include gymnasiums, swimming pools and India’s largest sports science centre at Kalinga Stadium, an official release said.
“We are delighted to collaborate with Tata Steel in this endeavour. Our partnership with Tata Steel for Hockey High Performance Centre has been exemplary and producing encouraging results. We have a huge potential for archery and sports climbing in Odisha and in the country and with this new association, we will be able to collectively contribute towards creating a conducive environment for athletes in these disciplines,” Patnaik said.
Stating that the archery is an ancient traditional game of India, Patnaik said, “We will promote the sport in partnership with Tata Steel. There is lot of talent among our tribal children and hopefully, many champions will emerge from this HPC.”
Sports secretary S Vineel Krishna represented the sports and youth services department while Tata Steel was represented by Chanakya Chaudhary, vice-president, corporate services Tata Steel Ltd. And chairman of Tata Steel Adventure Foundation.
The centres have proven to produce elite athletes in hockey, football, swimming, athletics, gymnastics, sports science, shooting, weightlifting and now archery and sport climbing will further benefit from this partnership, he said.
