BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha Naval Tata Hockey High Performance Centre (HPC) has commenced its boys’ resident programme at the Kalinga hockey complex.
The hockey HPC has been set up to groom the upcoming sporting talent in hockey and produce world-class sportspersons.
A total of 31 trainees have been selected for the programme. These players, in the age group of U-17 years, have been chosen from a two-week long selection camp, held during November-December. Among the first batch of trainees, 21 are from Odisha, seven are from Manipur, two from Uttar Pradesh and one from Assam.
State sports minister Tusharkanti Behera on Friday formally inaugurated the boys’ resident programme at a function here in presence of hockey legend Dilip Tirkey, state sports secretary Vishal Kumar Dev and Chanakya Chaudhary, vice president, corporate services, Tata Steel among others. Two grassroots centres in Dhenkanal and Deogarh were also launched on the occasion, taking the tally of grassroots centres to 12.
“This is an elite opportunity and platform for you to excel in hockey. This is the first step towards achieving your sporting dreams. This HPC will play a crucial role and along with experienced and expert coaches will endeavour to groom you all into future national and international players,” said the sports minister.
Chief minister Naveen Patnaik inaugurated the Hockey HPC in August 2019 that had already started programme for girls. At present, 30 girls from Odisha, Jharkhand, Assam, Punjab, Manipur, and Uttar Pradesh are being trained at the hockey HPC.
Sources said the HPC will add few more boys and girls to their existing vacancies post April 2021, for which another set of trials will be planned.