BHOPAL: The Indian Athletics team for the 11th SAF Games being held in Dhaka from Jan. 29 to Feb. 6 has been announced by Lalit K. Bhanot, Secretary Athletic Federation of India, (AFI).

According to a Press release of AFI the Indian Athletic team is at present undergoing training in Kuala Lumpur in their preparation for the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games. It left Delhi on Jan. 19 and will be in Kuala Lumpur till Feb. 16. The athletes selected for the SAF Games will be leaving Kuala Lumpur for Dhaka on Feb. 4 and after participation in the SAF Games, they will go back to Kuala Lumpur and continue their training till Feb. 16.

Selected were:

Men:

100m: 1. S. Sathya 2.Abdul Najeeb Qureshi; 200m: 1. Abdul Najeeb Qureshi; 4x100m: 1. S.Sathya, 2. Abdul Najeeb Qureshi, 3. Manikandaraj, 4. Ritesh Anand 5. Sameer Mon; 400m: 1. Bibin Mathew, 2. S.K.Mortaza; 4x400m: 1. Bibin Mathew, 2. S. K. Mortaza, 3. V.B.Bineesh, 4. K.M.Binu, 5. Harpreet Singh; 1500m: 1. Sunil Kumar, 2. Naresh Yadav; 110m H: 1. P.Muthu Swamy, 2. Sandeep Parmar; 5000m: 1. Sunil Kumar, 2. Mohammad Yunus Khan; 400m H: 1. Avin A Thomas, 2. T.Bala Murugan; Javelin Throw: 1. Kashinath, 2. Samarjith Singh; Discus Throw: 1. Simranjit Singh; Long Jump: 1. Mohammad. Abrar, 2. Shamsher Pratap Singh; Triple Jump: 1. Saurabh; High Jump: 1. Hari Shankar Roy, 2. C.Nikhil Chittarasu; Marathon: 1. Arvind Kumar, 2. Ram Singh

Women:

100m: 1. Sharda Narayan, 2. Mandeep Kaur; 200m: 1. Jauna Murmu, 2. K. Sowjanya; 4x100m: 1. Sharda Narayan, 2. Mandeep Kaur, 3. Priya P.K., 4. K. Sowjanaya & 5. Nidhi Singh; 400m: 1. Priyanka Pawar, 2. Ashwani A.C.; 4x400m: 1. Priyanka Pawar, 2. Ashwani A.C., 3. Jauna Murmu, 4. Tiana Mary Thomas & 5. K. Sowjanya; Long Jump: 1. Prajusha M.A., 2. Reshmi Bose; High Jump: 1.Sahana Kumari; 100m H: 1. G.Govindaraj.

Madhya Pradesh offers land for Football Academy

A Football Academy is in the offing in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh if famous Indian footballer Baichung Bhutia, who is in need of 30 acres of land for establishing it, okays the offer for the same made by the state Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

Chouhan made the revelation while speaking at a function on Tuesday. He said his Government was prepared to offer 30 acres to Baichung Bhutia for setting up an academy.

He said that when he came to know that Bhutia was looking for land for the academy then he asked Sports Director of the state to contact him. Responding to the state government’s offer Bhutia has said that he will visit Bhopal soon.

It may be mentioned here that Indian football captain Baichung Bhutia had on Monday reportedly expressed the desire of starting a football academy, while talking to newspersons in Panaji provided he got 20 to 30 acres of land for it. He had stated that the academy would be a long-term project.

“Personally, I want to start an academy. I want to have a very good academy,” Bhutia had told media persons at the Duler football ground.

Chouhan, who was addressing the inaugural function of the 18th All-India Forest Sports Competition at TT Nagar Stadium here, further, said that the country had ample sports talent but there was shortage of resources, adding that the State Government was promoting sports and had made a hefty budget allocation for it.

The chief minister had emerged as the savior for the national sports hockey, which is already in dire straits for quite some time.

First, Chouhan had announced financial support to the men’s team when they decided to boycott the national camp in Pune last month over payment delay issue and later the women’s team also had found an ally in Chouhan, during their protest on the same issue as raised by their male counterparts during the same month.

The all-out support as announced by the Madhya Pradesh chief minister for hockey players had galvanized the former players and also generated considerable support for the game from various sections of society. After Chouhan’s announcement various corporations, film stars, big institutions and various State Governments have come forward with monetary support for the men’s and women’s teams. This had enabled Hockey India to make long-pending payments to both the teams last month.

Meanwhile, Madhya Pradesh Forest Minister Sartaj Singh while welcoming the players said that Forest Department would also form its band like Police Band. He also thanked the state government and its various departments for extending support in organizing these games. The welcome address was delivered by Madhya Pradesh Laghu Vanopaj Vyapar Mahasangh managing director RK Dave, who is also president of the organizing committee. Principal Chief Conservator of Forests AK Dubey also addressed the function.

Earlier, Chief Minister Chouhan unfurled a flag to declare the competition open. In the march past, the players offered salute to the chief guest while the Police Band gave a guard of honor to the Chief Minister. Additional Chief Conservator of Forests AK Jain administered oath to players. Following this, Chief Minister Chouhan lit the torch of the games and handed it over to Arjun Award winner player Tombi Devi. The torch was passed on to players of various states and then was installed at the stadium.

In all, 33 teams from 21 Indian states, four Union Territories and eight forestry institutions are taking part in the competition.