Shimla: High-altitude training centre gets thumbs-up from athletes

Shimla, July 22

The high-altitude training centre of the Sports Authority of India in Shilaroo, about 50km from Shimla, has come in for praise from Olympic-bound boxer Amit Panghal, his training partners and other athletes training at the institute.

“It’s a great facility and should be used a lot more by top athletes. The weather is conducive for training and there’s no distraction as it’s far away from the city’s hustle and bustle,” said Panghal as he left the centre after training here for a month ahead of the Paris Olympics. “It’s so hot at NIS-Patiala; the top athletes should be utilising this centre in summer,” he said.

A 25-member girls’ hockey contingent from Haryana, currently practising at the centre, is also all praise. “We have been here just for a couple of days and we all are impressed. The best thing is that our training time per day has increased. You can go out and train at any time during the day as the temperature hovers around 20 degree Celsius,” said Manju, a national-level hockey player. “The food and lodging facilities are good.”

Rajesh Bhandari, Coaching Director of the Boxing Federation of India, said effort should be made to make the optimum use of the centre. “The weather here is similar to Europe. A lot of top-notch sporting events are held in the European countries. The athletes participating in these events could be brought here for acclimatisation,” he said.

The centre was inaugurated in 1986 and has several indoor and outdoor facilities, including a hockey turf, a 200-m synthetic track and two multipurpose halls for games like boxing, badminton, volleyball, wrestling, judo, basketball and gymnastics. The centre has a 150-room hostel for boys and 100-room facility for girls.

Ankush Katoch, in-charge of the centre, says apart from the national campers, the centre is used mostly by the athletes of National Centres of Excellence. “The athletes from these centres keep coming here. Apart from winters, we always have athletes training here,” said Katoch. To ensure that locals also get to use the top-notch facilities, Katoch said any government or private bodies or individuals can book the facilities at the centre on per day payment basis.

“The locals have conducted volleyball and athletics event here. We encourage the locals to use the centre as much as possible so that budding players also get the taste of quality facilities,” said Katoch.