CM inaugurates National Centre of Excellence for Badminton

GUWAHATI: In a major boost for the development of Indian badminton, the president of Badminton Association of India (BAI) and Chief Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma inaugurated the state-of-the-art National Centre of Excellence for Badminton in the city on Friday. The centre will be jointly run by BAI and Government of Assam and a MoU was also signed between the two parties during the launch event.

The National Centre of Excellence has come up at the Amingaon Indoor Stadium with world-class facilities, including the remarkable 16 courts designed to meet rigorous training needs of 60 athletes in the first phase. In addition, the centre, which has an area of 40,000 square feet, features a gymnasium with modern fitness equipment, 100-bed hostel for players and coaches, a dedicated physiotherapy centre and a swimming pool.

Apart from CM the grand inauguration ceremony was also attended by badminton legend Taufik Hidayat, chief coach of Indian team Pullela Gopichand, members of the historic Thomas Cup-winning team, Minister of Sports and Youth Welfare, Assam, Nandita Gorlosa and others.

Inaugurating the Centre BAI president Sarma said, “This National Centre of Excellence was a dream. It has been a journey of seven long years and I am delighted that today we not only have the finest excellence centre in India but one of the best in the world too. What is even more heartening is that this will be part of Assam’s legacy and will revolutionise sports history of the region,”

Renowned international badminton coaches Indonesia’s Mulyo Handoyo, who will be looking into the development of singles players, former All England champion Russia’s Ivan Sozonov and Korea’s Park Tae-Sang will be spearheading a strong coaching panel along with a string of Indian coaches, who will also be trained and developed to meet the global standards.

Badminton legend Taufiq Hidayat, who was present in the function, praised BAI’s step to bolster the badminton movement in the country, “This National Centre of Excellence has good facilities and is bigger. I hope the centre will help the Indian junior players to fulfil their dream.”

The general secretary of BAI Sanjay Mishra delivered the welcome speech where he said, “This is the first Centre of Excellence for Badminton in the North East and the players from the region will be highly benefited from it.

He also added:”Apart from providing training to the players the centre will also groom coaches.”

The winning team of the Thomas Cup was felicitated in the function. The jam packed stadium later also witnessed top Indian badminton stars Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, Vishnuvardhan Goud Panjala, Krishna Prasad Garaga and Dhruv Kapila playing an exciting exhibition match for the people present.

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