Itanagar: Arunachal Pradesh sports minister Mama Natung expressed optimism on the state’s capability of conducting the National Games in the coming years. Reason: the work on most of the sporting infrastructure across the picturesque state is almost 80 per cent completed.
“Yes why not? This is not in our hands, but given an opportunity, Arunachal Pradesh is willing to host the National Games. We have the required infrastructure, the work on those stadiums are almost 80 per cent completed,” Natung told EastMojo in an exclusive interview.
Elaborating on his ministry’s work towards infrastructure development, Natung presented a detailed list of the projects that are expected to see the light of the day in the next couple of years.
“We are coming up with an international standard 8-court badminton academy, namely the Dorjee Khandu Badminton Academy (DKBA), nearby Sangay Lhaden Sports Academy in Chimpu. The academy will be a fully equipped residential complex, where faculties and athletes will have proper hostel facilities. Almost 80 per cent work has been completed in this facility.”
“Then we are coming up with a brand new stadium in Yupia with a seating capacity of nearly 1,12,000 and the construction of the stadium is completed, only the laying of the synthetic track is yet to be completed. We have multipurpose sports complexes in every district, and on top of that Arunachal will have the Northeast region’s third National Centre of Excellence after Assam and Manipur,” he explained.
Natung, who has led many Arunachal contingents at various regional and national level events, including the NorthEast Olympic Games and the Khelo India Youth Games, expressed his gratitude to the Boxing Federation of India for allotting the 5th Junior Boys National Championships to the state, and assured that the government has fully backed in successful conduct of the event.
“It’s the first time we are hosting a national boxing tournament. I want to thank the Boxing Federation of India (BFI) for letting Arunachal Pradesh host an event of such magnitude. I also want to thank the office bearers of the Arunachal Amateur Boxing Association (AABA) for successfully conducting the tournament here,” he said.
“I believe this tournament will provide a very good platform to our junior boxers and inspire them to work hard towards achieving the goal of winning medals at the Asian Games, Commonwealth Games and the Olympics. Six of our boxers have reached the semifinals which speaks volumes of the talent we have in Arunachal,” he added.
On being asked about the challenges the AABA and the state government had to overcome in the build-up to the event, he said, “No there were no real challenges as such. The government has given full support to the AABA and the officers are leaving no stone unturned to make the event successful. Ahead of the tournament, the CM held a meeting with all stakeholders to ensure that there are no hiccups.”
“In fact, you should ask this to the participants and the technical officials if they felt any shortcoming in our hospitality, in regards to the facilities including quality of rings, food and accommodation,” he said on a jovial note.
Natung further said that the sporting ecosystem in the state has seen an unprecedented high with athletes winning 900 medals, including 81 at the international level, since the Pema Khandu-led government took charge in 2016-17.
“People in Arunachal Pradesh are born with a sportsman spirit, the only thing we need is nurturing and polishing from a technical point of view. Irrespective of their disciplines (boxing, weightlifting, karate, taekwondo) athletes from the state have won medals at both the national and international level,” he said.
“I can give you an interesting stat, since 2016-17 after Pema Khandu took over the reins of the state, our athletes have won a record 900 medals, including 81 at the international level across all sports. This speaks volumes of our government’s vision towards development of sports.
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“As the minister of sports in Team Arunachal of CM Khandu, we are preparing a roadmap for Mission Olympics in which we will shortlist four disciplines with maximum medal prospects and accordingly develop the infrastructure so that our athletes can get the best of training facilities at home,” he further explained.
And with four home boxers already making it to the finals of the ongoing 5th Junior Boys National Championships here, it seems boxing could easily make the cut as one of the four shortlisted disciplines that the government is eyeing in its Mission Olympics.
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