Coaching camp for the selection of athletes for CYG begins

Pune, Sep 11 (UNI) The athletic coaching camp for the selection of the Indian probables for the third 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games (CYG) got underway at the synthetic track of the Baburao Sanas complex and at the Army Sports Institute (ASI ) Ghorpadi here from today.

The Athletic Federation of India (AFI) has decided to hold the coaching camp in Pune. THe camp will conclude on October 8, said federation's joint secretary Pralhad Sawant here.

A total 103 athletes, including 15, from hosts Maharashtra will be put through their paces under noted coach Suresh Babu who will be assisted by 27 other experts coaches.

Sawant further said the camp is being held so that the Indian athletes get acclimatized to the prevailing conditions and also to have a perfect co-ordination among the relay quartets.

For both the boys and girls, the camp provides the final opportunity for the probables to gear up for the stiffer tests ahead, he added.

The AFI selected the probables after the conclusion of the inter-zonal athletic championship held at Tatanagar in Jamshedpur recently, he informed.

Maharashtra athletes performed well garnering a total of 32 medals, including ten gold, ten silver and 12 bronze in the meet.

In view of their performance at Jamshedpur, Maharashtra could contribute a fair chunk in the selection trails, Sawant said.

The gold medal winners were Pooja Warade, Sayali Dravid, who got two gold each, while Rohini Raut, Shradha Ghule, Nikita Kochekar, Devendra Sharma, Navin Singh, Chandrashekar Manvatkar, bagged one gold each.

The silver medals winners were Tanvi Shanbag, C K Ranjith,both got two silver medal, while Monica Raut, Rakshada Chainigund, Bhagyashri Shirke, Annuraddha Gujar,Durgesh Kumar Pal, got one silver each.

The bronze medals winners were Pooja Patil, Sahara Vohra, Shradha Gule, Sonia, Chipoorvia, Mehergin Sarfabadi, Anil Pawar, Fugriya Vasawe, Saba Bhagat,Sandeep Khan,Dattatraya Zodge, which also included the relay squads.

The probables will also take part in the athletic ''Test Games'' slated to be held at Balewadi from September 19 - 21 on the newly laid out track.

Sawant said the meet will be inaugurated by Indian Olympic Association (IOA) President Suresh Kalmadi, who is also the chairman of the organising committee of the 2008 CYG as well.

He said the selected athletes from Maharashtra in the coaching camp are as follows: Girls : Sayali Dravid,Bhagyasri Shirke,,Pooja Patil, Tanvi Shanbag,Pooja Warade,Shraddha Ghule,Shriya Vidwans, Swati Gadhve Boys: Anniruddha Gujar, CK Ranjith, Saba Bhagat, Navin Singh, Dhiraj Mishra and Jitin Thomas.

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