To be a sporting nation

North-East has added another name to its impressive list of champions. This time it is Assam’s Jayanta Talukdar. Jayanta becomes top-ranked archer in world after clinching the individual recurve gold in the just concluded FITA Meteksan Archery World Cup at Porec, Croatia.

Mary kom, Kunjarani, Jayanta, the list of champions from North-East is swelling with every passing day. It is quite amazing that such a small region like North-East is producing champions with unfailing regularity. If one considers the fact that the region has very little or no infrastructure at all, the achievements of Mary kom or Jayanta become even bigger and significant.

Thus the success of Jayanta once again brings to light the fact that the region may be lacking in proper facilities, it has immense talents. If proper attention is paid, North-East may become the nursery of Indian sports.

Let us take a look at the achievements of the region in sporting arena so far. Indian football scene today is dominated by North-Eastern footballers. Baichung Bhutia, Renedy Singh, Malsamma are all from North-East and along with number of other footballers from the region form the nucleus of Indian football. Each and every top team of the country has one or more North-Easterners in its side. Same is the case with women football too. Manipur’s hegemony in women football is unchallenged for quite a number of years. Besides, in women hockey North-East has fair representation. Weightlifting, Boxing, Judo, Cycling, the region is no way inferior to other states.

In such a scenario, it’s a pity that the region is lacking     in facilities. Many budding and talented sports persons of the region could not reach to the top because of lack of facilities. If those talents can be properly tapped, India     can make a mark as a sporting nation. By virtue of     hosting National Games, Manipur provides good facilities to its sports persons. As Assam will be holding National Games sometime later this year, it is expected that it too  will provide quality infrastructure to its budding and talented sports persons.

But one thing we should always keep in our minds. Barring Assam or Manipur, talents are available in other North-Eastern states too. We should focus on those states too. For example, tiny North-Eastern State Nagaland is not in a position to hold a sporting event as big as National Games. But that doesn’t prove it has lesser number of talents. So while we have good infrastructure in Manipur and Assam will have proper facilities soon, Nagaland should not be neglected. Same is the case with Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Mizoram. These states should be provided with at least with good coaching facilities and trained coaches.

   If proper facilities are provided, it is guaranteed that India will not come back empty handed from international sporting events, rather soon it will be considered among one of the top sporting nations in the world.       

|  Headlines  |  Editorial   | Cover story  |
|  Travel Column   |   News Briefs  |
| OT Main Page | Nena  Home Page  |