The three-day 11th National Inter District Athletics Championship which was scheduled last month will begin from Friday at Birsa Munda Athletics Stadium. Participants from 255 districts of I748ndia between the age group Under-14 to Under-17 players will be performing here. This is for the second time Ranchi will host a similar sports event.
Talking to the media persons on Thursday, Athletics Federation of India (AFI) Executive Director Arun Kumar Kesari informed that this is a dream project of AFI as it is designed to increase participation of teenage players in the national competitions.
Notably, the districts which followed the norm of AFI to conduct district championship for selection to this meet have been included here. “Instead of mere trials, AFI has made it compulsory for all the districts to organize district championship for selecting players for this meet. Unfortunately, several districts have failed to conduct it. For example, only 17 districts of Jharkhand have qualified for this tournament. Even this state capital children are not participating” said Kesari.
He added, “Till date children under the age of 12 years were not allowed to play athletics. But, now International Association of Athletics Federation has introduced a kids programme for 7 to 12 years old players as a team event. The purpose behind introducing this is to boost the performance of children.”
This national game was assigned to lucknow in October last year but due to some technical hurdles it was then fixed at Ranchi in December. “All India Police Games were scheduled then so we had to postpone this meet,” said AFI Joint Secretary Madhukant Pathak.
Kesari said that the 12th National Inter District Athletics Championship is to be held at Haridwar from April 25 to 27. AFI has instructed all the districts to hold district competitions by April 15 for participation in the 12th National Inter District Athletics Championship. Ranchi had earlier hosted the ninth phase of this meet. The remaining ones have been conducted at Haridwar.
For members of Jharkhand Athletics Association, hosting this meet is an easy job as state government is providing the venue and accommodation facilities at free of cost. Pathak said, “We will bear only the electricity and damage amounts.”