Meet record on third day

Bhopal, Feb 28: Finally there was a meet record here at the third day of the 14th Federation Cup Athletics championships here on Thursday. Sudha Singh, representing Jharkhand, who has been dominating the women's 3000m steeplechase since its (the event's) inception two years ago, clocked 10:29.92s tow in the gold here. The mark, however, fell short of her own national record of 10:18.76s, but was better than Santhi Soundarajan's record of 10:44.76 created in 2006.

Rajashree Patil of Maharashtra won the silver with a timing of 10:50.99. In men's long jump comeback man Maha Singh secured the gold with a distance of 7.57m. Staging a Return after more than 18 months, Maha Singh managed to clear the distance in his penultimate attempt.  His sequence of attempts were 7.39, 7.39, x, 7.43, 7.52 and 7.57m. In women's shot put, Seema Antil of CRPF won the gold with 14.17m, while the silver went to her teammate Saroj Sihag (13.64m).  National record holder in high jump Hari Shankar Roy of Jharkhand managed to clear 2.15m for his gold, while Bendict Starley of Tamil Nadu (2.11m) won the silver.

While in the morning session, Y. Baladevi from Jharkhand won the 20km walk clocking 1:43:33.69 ahead of National record holder L.Deepmala Devi (1:46:45.53s). According the Nitin Arya System Administrator of AFI, high profile long jumper Anju Bobby George will not participate in the tomorrow's event as her manager didn't confirmed her entry in the confirmation form.

Sports kit to players of scheduled castes

Bhopal, Jan 08: A scheme has been approved by the state government to provide sports kits free of cost to players belonging to scheduled castes. Those who have taken part in national and state level individual and team events can avail benefits of this scheme. Applications of players belonging to scheduled castes can be submitted by January 28, 2008.

Under the scheme players of national as well as state levels would be provided economic assistance for purchasing sports kits as per the set criteria and standards. A provision has been made to give Rs 7,000 as a reward to the player who achieves success at the state level individual events while Rs 5,000 would be given to the player who excels in team events. Similarly, Rs 12,000 would be given to a player for achieving success in individual national-level event and Rs 8,000 to the member of the team who excel in the team event.

As per the criteria laid down under the scheme for economic assistance to scheduled caste players, the age of a junior player must be below 17 years while a senior player must not be less than 17 years and more than 20 years of age. A player intending to take the benefit of this scheme must be domicile of Madhya Pradesh and a member of scheduled castes. Benefit of the scheme would be on the basis of 'first come, first serve. From among the applicants, players of low income group and lesser age would be selected.

Players of national and state level individual and team events can take the benefit of this scheme by submitting their application forms along with their certificates and documents either directly to Office of the Commissioner Scheduled Caste Development, Rajiv Gandhi Road, 35-Shamla Hills, Bhopal or send the same by registered post by January 28, 2008. Applications received after the due date would not be considered. Details of the scheme can be had from the office of the Commissioner Scheduled Caste Development during working hours.

Historical achievements in the sports arena

Bhopal, Dec 26: Madhya Pradesh has made historical achievements in the sports arena in 2007. These achievements have filled a new vigour and energy in the sports and sportspersons of the state. During the year Madhya Pradesh made its mark in national as well as state-level games to the proportion of historical achievements.

Sportspersons and teams of Madhya Pradesh have put the state on the sports map by winning as many as 184 medals during only five months. Besides, 15 players of state's sports academies have been selected in national teams. The purpose of setting up these academies is to hone the skills of sports talents of the state and raise their level of game so that they can represent the state at international, national and state-level competitions and bring glory to the state by winning medals.

In the sports arena availability of infrastructure and high-level training facility must be ensured. With this in view, the state government established academies for shooting, equestrian, water sports, martial arts and men's hockey. Sports and Youth Welfare Department has provided many facilities to the players selected to undergo training at these academies. Players belonging to these sports academies have won 119 gold, 31 silver and 34 bronze medals during the last five months.

Training camps were held from December 15, 2006 to February 2, 2007 to Madhya Pradesh contingent before taking part in 33rd National Games held at Guwahati (Assam). The National Games were held from February 9 to 19 at Guwahati where historic performances were put up by players and team from Madhya Pradesh winning 12 gold, 19 silver and 32 bronze medals.

Sixty-nine teams from Madhya Pradesh took part in All India Rural Sports Competition's first phase which was held at Aurangabad (Maharashtra) from January 5 to 8, 2007. National Rowing Championship was held from January 18 to 21, 2007. In National Youths Festival held at Pune (Maharashtra) from January 12 to 16 Kumari Deepti Gedam won gold medal in classical singing (Hindustani) while Ramendra Kumar Solanki won bronze medal in Tabla playing. Training camps for tribal players were held at January 22 to February 2, 2007.

MP police team bags Bronze in water sports

Bhopal, Dec 11: Punjab Police team bagged three gold medals whereas CRPF managed to get one gold medal in the All India Police Water Sports in progress at Bhopal. On the second day of competition results of different events Single Skull, Double Scull, coxed pair and coxed four of Rowing was declared. Winners received medals from the retired DGs Narendra Prasad and GP Dubey and IAS officer HS Pabla.

Punjab’s Lakshman Singh ranked first, CRPF’s Shishan Pal second and SSB’s Imanuel Ddavid Singh bagged third position in Single Scull. In the Second Scull category, CRPF’s Chandrashekhar and Vikendra Kumar bagged first position, BSF’s Jatindra Jeet Singh and Praveen Kumar remained second and Punjab’s Tejindra Singh and Karnel Singh stood third. In another event of the day played in coxed pair, the selected players were: Punjab’s Jaspal Singh and Lakshan (First), CRPF’s Vikendra Kumar and Shishan Pal (Second) and Madhya Pradesh’s Vijay Kalchuri and Vinod Mishra (Third). The final competition played under coxed four of the day, witnessed the ranking of team as follows; Punjab’s team (First), Andhra Pradesh’s team (Second) and Tamil Nadu’s team (third).

Meanwhile, the state police have made arrangements for music programmes for 18 teams from Kashmir to Tamil Nadu and Manipur to Uttrakhand, who are participating in the All India Police Water Sports. The Water Sports organizing committee has fixed cultural evening programmes for all 300 participants and officials on December 12 and 13. A musical evening where emerging artist Mohammed Ayub concert is scheduled at the MP Tourism Development Corporation’s Wind & Waves restaurant under the joint aegis of Police and Tourism department late Tuesday night.

On the successive day, folk dance by Rajasthan’s famous Badmer and Ajmer and Jodhpur’s international fame artist Kalbelia, Bhawai, Chari, Ghoomer and Gair will be performed at Police Officers Mess at 8 pm. On December 13, a harmony orchestra under the direction of well-known musician Umesh Tarkshwar will energize the Motilal Nehru Stadium.

Facilities to all games, says chief minister

Bhopal: The Chief Minster Shivraj Singh Chouhan has said that all necessary facilities would be provided to players and equal importance would be attached to all the games. Efforts would be made to organize Women Hockey Asia Cup at Bhopal in November this year. He was speaking at a function after inaugurating the 20th Sub Junior National Girls Hockey Tournament at TT Nagar Stadium here on Saturday.

He stressed the need for providing necessary resources, facilities and favourable atmosphere to bring out the best in sport persons. Regretting the neglect of sports and sportspersons over the years he assured that funds would be no impediment in development of sports. He said that by winning 63 medals at the National Games at Guwahati recently the players have proved that they are second to none, if provided proper facilities.

The Chief Minister was introduced to the captains and players of the teams drawn from all the states on the occasion. He said that Bhopal had been the nursery of hockey and the state capital had been represented in Indian hockey team. There is need to restore the glory of Bhopal hockey. He assured that cricket or any other game would not be promoted at the cost of other games. Chouhan said that necessary steps have been taken for promotion of all the games including hockey in the state. The Women Hockey Academy has been set up to groom excellent women hockey players at national and international level. The Chief Minister took the salute of a joint parade of the teams on the occasion and declared the tournament open.

The Director, Sports and Youth Welfare Sanjay Choudhary welcomed the Chief Minister and presented a memento to him. Mayor of Bhopal Sunil Sood extended good wishes to the teams participating in the tournament. General Secretary of Indian Women Hockey Federation Ms Amirtia Bose informed that the tournament is being organized after a gap of 30 years at Bhopal. This tournament would play an important role in preparing players for Women Hockey World Cup and Olympic. Former captain of Indian women hockey team Ms Sunita Chandra and president of Madhya Pradesh Olympic Federation Mahesh Joshi and Additional Director General of Police Surendra Singh were also present on the occasion.

'Being captain of national team, no achievement’

Bhopal: The closing ceremony of Global Peace Games –SOS FIFA Football Trophy –2006 was concluded in the presence of Mr. Rajendra Surana of Surana Motors. He admired the work done by the SOS in the field of childcare. He appreciated the initiative taken for the global peace and non -violence especially through football for the younger generation.

The SOS Peace Football Competition is organized by SOS Children’s Village in collaboration with FIFA for the age group of under -14 budding stars of football from October 16 to 20 in SOS FIFA football ground at SOS village Khajuri Kalan road, Piplani.

Today the final match of this tournament was played between SOS Children’s Village & Dr Radhakrishnan School .In this tough fight the SOS Children’s Village team excel with 2-2 goal and finally with penalty shootout of 4-3 SOS declared the winner of the trophy.

The Title "Best Performer Of The Tournament " was shared by Vishal (SOS Children’s Village), Baldhir Tigga (St.Xavier School) & Rohit (Raman School). This title was given on the basis of performance during the entire tournament.