‘Bidar is sure to produce Olympians’

“Bidar has such high quality sports infrastructure now that it is sure to produce some Olympians in the future,” said K.V. Gagandeep, Additional Director-General of Police (Prisons), said here on Saturday.

He was speaking at the prize distribution ceremony for winners of the Ashok Kheny ITF Bidar Open Tennis Tournament at the Bidar Police Tennis Club.

He said that the club, which has three tennis courts of international quality, is now building a fourth. ITF-registered coach Madhukar Kadaiah is training children and seniors.

“We hope that Bidar will produce some ITF players in the next five to six years,” he said.

Infrastructure

Mr. Gagandeep congratulated the district administration for building an Olympic-standard swimming pool and an indoor stadium. He hoped that the youth would use these facilities for training.

He appreciated the efforts of the Bidar police for having built the courts and for starting the Bidar Police Sports Training School.

H.N. Girisha, who won silver in the London Paralympics, said that youth should take up sports not for money or fame, but to gain confidence.

The pleasure of learning to play a game and to compete is not found anywhere else. Everyone may not be able to make a career in sports, but it is satisfying in its own way, he said.

Shashil Namoshi, MLC, said that Mr. Gagandeep had introduced tennis to Hyderabad Karnataka when he was the Inspector-General of Police of the North Eastern Range.

Ashok Kheny, entrepreneur and chief sponsor of the event, handed over gift cheques to Wing Yau Venise Chan of Hong Kong, who won the tournament, and runner-up Yumi Miyazaki of Japan. He said that he would support such events in future.

‘Feels like Europe’

After three days of rain in the city, the sun rose in Bidar on Saturday morning, which led the tournament winner, Chan, to remark that the city almost felt like Europe.

“After travelling from Gulbarga, we thought this place would have been hotter. It was nothing like we expected. We were pleasantly surprised when it turned out to be a cool, rainy place like those little towns in Europe,” she said.

source: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-karnataka/bidar-is-sure-to-produce-olympians/article3973913.ece