Sports and Youth Affairs Secretary Vishal K Dev strongly feels that Odisha now has one of the best climbing facilities in the country.
Training in sports climbing at the Sport Climbing HPC at the Kalinga Stadium complex has commenced from July 26.
In a short span, the HPC has attracted more than three dozens of boys and girls mainly from the Sainik School and the KISS who have registered themselves and are training daily.
The Indian Mountaineering Foundation (IMF) coaches are taking all safety precautions and wholeheartedly training the budding climbers. Some of them have potential of becoming good climbers and coaches are shaping them up to achieve the desired results. Passion for climbing is distinctly visible in some of them.
On the future of sports climbing in the State, IMF National chairman Brig MP Yadav shared, “In coordination with the Department of Sports and Youth Services, Odisha, we will hire international coaches and organise trainings in October-November this year, for Indian team to train for Asian level competitions. This will also inspire aspiring youngsters to take sports climbing seriously. With continuous and joint efforts of IMF and the department, a good team of sports climbing from Odisha will certainly emerge.”
The future of sport climbing is extremely bright and the results will show in times to come. Some of the parents are very enthusiastic about their children taking up the sport which is very encouraging to the organisers, he added.