State gears up for sport climbing

BHUBANESWAR: In a bid to take sport climbing to international level, Indian Mountaineering Foundation  (IMF) in collaboration with Sports and Youth Services Department of Odisha has set up a High Performance Centre (HPC) at Kalinga Stadium here.

The centre, set up earlier this month, will take off with the first batch training in sport climbing slated to begin from July 26. Registration for the first batch of trainees in the age group of 10 to 16  is in progress.
“Sport climbing is now an Olympic discipline and will debut in 2020 in Tokyo. With this in mind, Indian Mountaineering Foundation (IMF) has planned a detailed road map to spread awareness on the sport and identify athletes at an early age,” said IMF Director MP Yadav.

“Sport climbing has always lacked infrastructure of international standard and proper coaches. Odisha Government has set up speed, lead and bouldering walls for climbing, which is one of the best in the country. IMF will provide competent coaches to train the future generation athletes,” added Yadav. There is no dearth of talent in the State, particularly in the tribal districts which have many potential athletes. We are devising a long-term plan to train a climbing team from the State, for which we will be on a talent-hunt spree, he said.

To make use of facilities here, IMF plans to get national teams for their advanced training before taking part in various international competitions. After inclusion of climbing sports in the Olympic Games, many young players have evinced interest in the sport. In the recently concluded open national meet, more than 200 climbers joined, added Yadav.