Pune
The best and the brightest among the young sportspersons of the country ,including Olympian Jisna Mathew, Swimmer Srihari Nataraj, three 10-year-old athletes including footballer Pratima Kumar from Jharkhand, hockey player Laltlanchhungi from Mizoram and West Bengal’s 10m air rifle shooter Abhinav Shaw, will showcase their talent in the 2nd Khelo India Youth Games (KIYG) which commences at Pune on Wednesday.
The athletes will compete in 18 different disciplines, including individual and team sport, disciplines in which India has a tradition of excellence and traditional games like Kabaddi and Kho-Kho.
While reflecting the country’s diversity, the sportspersons will get a chance make their dreams come alive to make India shine on global platforms.
They are not only representing the urban and rural areas but also span a wide range of 10-21 years.
The Balewadi Complex, which has hosted the National games and Commonwealth Youth Games in the past has been refurbished with funds from the Centre and the state governments, so the sports infrastructure has been upgraded with electronic and digital targets have been fitted at the shooting range.
Though Balewadi will be the main venue, while archery will be held at the Army Sports Institute and Girls hockey matches will be at the NDA hockey ground in Pune. Football matches will be played at the Flame University ground and the police ground in Shivajinagar
Meanwhile hosts Maharashtra, who finished second in the inaugural Khelo India School Games 2018, are aiming to grab the top spot from Haryana.
Maharashtra has close to 900 athletes and officials and coaches, which makes it by far the biggest contingent at the Games..
At the KISG 2018, Haryana picked 38 gold, 26 silver and 38 bronze, while Maharashtra finished with 36 gold, 32 silver and 42 bronze. Maharashtra, however, had the consolation of winning most medals, 110, as compared to Haryana’s 102.
Delhi, who were chasing Haryana and Maharashtra till the penultimate day were left far behind at 25 gold, 29 silver and 40 bronze and a total of 94 medals.
Other major medal winning states were Karnataka (16 gold, 11 silver and 15 bronze), Manipur (13 gold, 13 silver and eight bronze), Uttar Pradesh (10 gold, 24 silver and 27 bronze) and Punjab (10 gold, 24 silver and 20 bronze) were the other states to win ten or more gold.