Odisha commences process to restructure, revamp residential sports hostels into "Sports Specific Hostels"

Bhubaneswar (Odisha) [India], Aug 6 : Odisha Sports and Youth Services Department, has commenced the process of restructuring and revamping its 16 residential sports hostels into "Sports Specific Hostels".
Currently, these multi-disciplinary sports hostels across 11 disciplines cater to trainees from the state, in the age group of 9-25 years leading to a scattered talent pool.
As per the Sports Department, this will restructure the allocation of sports disciplines across its hostels and nurture trainees of a particular sport, under defined age groups, at one location, thereby enhancing the scope for more competitive and collaborative learning, leading to the holistic development of an athlete.
Elaborating on the restructuring of the sports hostels, Sports Minister, Tusharkanti Behera, said they are aiming to strengthen the sports ecosystem.
"With this restructuring, we aim to create a perfect training ground and develop and strengthen our sports ecosystem, in the core of which lie these Sports Hostels, from where 'players of tomorrow' emerge, this would provide focused training and support for the athletes at beginner and intermediate level to graduate to a senior or elite level. Our hostels will be the pool of talent for the High-Performance Centres," Behera said in a statement.
Secretary Sports, Odisha, Vishal K Dev said, "We have been toying with this idea for a while, the full period due to the Covid pandemic gave us an opportunity to reassess our priorities especially for grassroots, this mechanism will ensure efficient use of districts' infrastructure and maximise appropriate funds utilization and introduce efficient monitoring system. It will also bring a positive change in athletes and make for stronger sports programmes."
"This is also in line with the thinking and efforts of Sports Authority of India (SAI) in restructuring their national training institutes to create medal winners in the future. We have deliberated with SAI and our stakeholders and are confident that this model, going further, will benefit the trainees and create a talent pathway for the aspiring players and also provide an opportunity for specialized coaches," he added.
Department has also decided to reduce the sanctioned capacity of the hostels from 1250 to 913 and focus on training the athletes below 18 years only. However, in some cases, sportspersons above 18 years, in individual sports disciplines, will be provided hostel facility, based on the assessment of their performance, and the prospect of winning medals in the national and international sporting events. The Department will also support sportspersons above 18 years with frequent specialized coaching camps.
Owing to a robust sports infrastructure and related facilities, Sports Hostels in Bhubaneswar, Sundergarh and Berhampur will continue to operate as multi-disciplinary training hubs.
In the same line of restructuring, now, Panposh Sports Hostel will be exclusively for Boys in field hockey and Sundergarh Sports Hostel will train Girls. Sports infrastructure and related facilities at both locations will be upgraded as per international standards to accommodate the competitive nature of training to enhance the performance of the athlete trainees.