Sports Ministry holds virtual meeting with 11 NSFs, discusses future plans including Olympics

Continuing its dialogue with various stakeholders, the Sports Ministry on Thursday held a virtual meeting with 11 more National Sports Federations (NSFs) and discussed their future plans, keeping in mind the Tokyo Olympics and beyond. [caption id=“attachment_4060423” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju. PIB[/caption] The meeting was the most recent of a series of dialogues planned by the ministry with various NSFs amid the coronavirus-forced national lockdown. The ministry had already interacted through a video conference with officials of Hockey India, National Rifle Association of India and Wrestling Federation of India, among others. “These are routine meetings between the ministry and the NSFs which are now held via video conference because of the pandemic. We already had the first series of meeting with some federations last week and today’s one is a continuation of this initiative,” a ministry official told PTI. “We will continue to hold such meetings with other federations as well.” During Thursday’s meeting, Sports Secretary Radhey Shyam Julaniya held discussions with two officials each from the national federations of handball, tennis, squash, basketball, Special Olympics Bharat, volleyball, wushu, yachting, kayaking and canoeing, kabaddi and All India University (AIU). An NSF representative, who attended the meeting with Julaniya, said the ministry took stock their future planning, including those for 2024 and 2028 Olympics. “It was a routine affair and we discussed about how to restart things once the situation becomes normal. The ministry wanted to know how we are planning things for future now that the Olympics has been postponed to 2021,” the NSF official said. “Every NSF was also asked about their expectations from the next Asian Games besides preparations and target for 2024 and 2028 Olympics also came up for discussion.” The official also said that the ministry asked the NSFs to work towards developing a training programme for coaches and creating centres of excellence for their respective sports.