BHUBANESWAR: Odisha known for its passion for hockey, has set up 18 Hockey Training Centres (HTCs) for development of hockey at grassroots while four more such centres will be opened soon, officials said on Tuesday. The HTCs have been set up by the Sports and Youth Services Department (DSYS) in partnership with Odisha Naval Tata Hockey High Performance Centre (HPC) with the aim to nurture a large spectrum of hockey talent from the state and provide an early exposure to synthetic turfs.
The active turfs have made functional at Bonoi, Tangarpalli, Bargaon, Bisra, Lahunipada, Lathikata, Lephripada, Subdega, Balisankara-Tileikani, Balisankara-Sonamara, Nuagaon, Kutra, Gurundia, Kuarmunda, and Kukuda in Sundargarh district, Jajpur town in Jajpur district, Jujumura in Sambalpur, and Chattrapur in Ganjam. Four more such centres are also set to be operational soon, the officials said.
Currently, about 1300 kids are training on the synthetic turfs in the 19 hockey training centres. Each HTC has two coaches engaged in this development programme.
During his recent visit to Sundargarh, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had emphasised the importance of sports development in the region. He had expressed his vision to nurture a wide range of sports talents from the district and nearby regions. IANS
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