Early-morning start for Khelo India events as mercury soars

NOIDA: With maximum temperatures hovering around the 45-degree mark across NCR, organisers of the Khelo India youth games have decided to hold the events early in the morning and late afternoon.
The games will be organised from May 25 to June 3 in four districts across Uttar Pradesh - Noida, Lucknow, Varanasi and Gorakhpur. In Noida, the events will be held at two places - Gautam Buddha University and Shaheed Vijay Singh Pathik stadium.
Officials said the morning session in all the four districts would start at 6.30am and continue till 11am.
Later in the day, the games will be held between 3.30pm and 8pm. While Noida will host mostly indoor games such as swimming, basketball and boxing, stadiums in the other districts are being prepared for football, rugby, athletics and other outdoor sports.
"The schedule is being prepared in such a way that players don't have to sweat it out in extreme weather. Noida, however, will host mostly indoor games like kabaddi, boxing, basketball, shooting and swimming. The timings are either early in the morning or late in the afternoon. Since youths from various parts of the country will participate in the games, we will have to take care of their well-being," said Anita Nagar, the district sports officer in Noida.
Despite the early start, outdoor games organised in the other districts during the day - when the mercury anyway shoots towards the 40-degree mark - will be challenging for the players this time. The timings of the games were not a cause for concern last year because they were held during the winter in December.
North India has been on the boil for the past few days. While Agra sizzled at 45.6 degrees, Hamirpur recorded 44.2 degrees, Prayagraj 44 degrees, Hardoi 43 and Varanasi 42.5 degrees.
Officials said the participants would be given air-conditioned rooms and the stadiums would have adequate power backups should there be outages. Hostels have been set aside for the players at GBU and students have been accommodated in other rooms. AC buses and cars are also being hired for the transport of the participants to the stadiums.
Ambulances will be on standby outside each venue and medical kiosks set up for the youths.
"There will be adequate arrangements for any untoward incident, be it water kiosks or medical camps. Three hostels have been set aside for housing the players. There will be doctors, physiotherapy experts, nurses, ambulances and other medical representatives for the participants. We have also collaborated with Yatharth and Sharda hospitals," said Pradeep Kumar, the nodal officer for the Khelo India games at GBU.
With only three days left for the games to begin, college students have already started arriving at the venues. Nearly 800 youths are expected to participate in the games this year.
"Till now, there are no complaints about the facilities here. We have been handed sports kits and the rooms are good too. As Khelo India is a national platform, we are excited to take part in the games," said Puja, who is part of the Haryana women's kabaddi team.
Manas Koley, who is part of the men's team, echoed her. "The accommodation looks good. We have a few tough matches ahead. But we are all prepared."
Sayantan Sanpui, a footballer from Kolkata, was relieved that there were ACs in the rooms. "It's extremely hot here. The outdoor games will be a challenge for us," he told TOI from Lucknow.
Ananya Santra of Kolkata, who will take part in the table tennis tournaments, was also happy with the arrangements. "I hope I will play at the international level some day," she said.