No enclosure for archers in F’bad

Bijendra Ahlawat

Tribune News Service

Faridabad, April 22

Having an impressive tally of five Arjuna awardees, 12 Bhim awardees and three Dhyanchand award recipients, the District Sports Complex here, however, do not have proper facilities for budding sportspersons.

“We train under trees or in an open ground as we do not have a permanent enclosure with proper equipment,” said Riya Tewatia, an international-level archer, who has participated in the Asia Cup twice in the past six months.

However, praising the efforts of the officials concerned and her coaches, she hoped things would improve in view of the game getting popular.

Claiming that the several trainees had already made a mark at national and international level, Deepak Kumar, archery coach, said efforts were on to provide facilities to ensure excellent results.

Interestingly, the Sports Department which has posted coaches for events like cricket, athletics, boxing, skating, gymnastics, badminton , lawn tennis, basketball, swimming, fencing, football, kho-kho, judo, hockey and wrestling, has however failed to ensure proper training equipment.

The cost of archery or shooting rifle (pistol) is around Rs2.5 lakh and is borne by the players only. The district has no official shooting complex.

The swimming pool is given to a private company on contract, making it hardly available for official swimmers. The tennis ground has also been functional under outsourcing basis.

While JG Banerjee, district sports officer, claimed the trainees registered here were allowed to use the outsourced facilities for free, but a tennis player, on condition of anonymity, said the ground remained occupied by those who paid fee during the peak hours.