Guwahati: Hockey India president Dilip Tirkey on Saturday emphasised the importance of developing sports at the grassroots level across all parts of the country besides stressing the need to motivate youngsters to pursue sports from a formative age.
It is important to help children identify their field of interest in sports based on their fitness and interest and encourage them so that they emerge successful in the future, he said at the closing ceremony of the year-long centenary celebration of sports journalism in Assam.
One of the all-time great defenders of Indian hockey, Dilip rose from the ranks to feature in 412 international matches (the highest by an Indian) in his career spanning from 1995 to 2009 and performed the role of a solid full-back and a utility penalty corner hitter.
“We need to focus on the grassroots for the future of sports. I feel the grassroots identification of talent and honing is neglected generally. There is a need to motivate children to take up sports,” said the former national hockey team captain.
The 45-year-old, who was part of the Indian team that won the 1998 Asian Games gold and 2007 Asia Cup title, further said that the sports icons can play a crucial role in motivating youngsters to take up sports but also highlighted the importance of understanding their strengths and weaknesses before taking up any sport.
On the sports scenario in Assam, Tirkey said women from the state have been performing well for the past few years.
“There is Lovlina, who has won at the Olympics which is always a big thing. Hima is another popular sportsperson from here … Others like Amlan are also emerging as champions.”
Lovlina Borgohain, who hails from Assam, won bronze at the 2020 Olympic Games in the women’s welterweight event, becoming only the third Indian boxer to win a medal at the Olympics. Hima Das, also from the state, is a sprinter and holds the current Indian national record in 400 meters that she clocked at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Sprinter Amlan Borgohain, who too hails from Assam, bagged two gold medals — one each in 100m and 200m — at the Flanders Cup athletics meet in Merksem, Belgium.
The first sports news in the state appeared in an Assamese newspaper on this day in 1923. It was about a three-day soccer competition in Sivasagar district.
Tirkey, the second tribal player to captain India in the Olympics after Jaipal Singh Munda in 1928, also spoke on the role of sports journalists in shaping an athlete’s career.
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“Earlier, when sports journalism started, it was only in print and I was told that when the first news was published it only carried a story about one team beating another. Today it’s a digital age, and there are a number of platforms that follow and write extensively on the athletes. It’s a great thing for athletes, they are recognised everywhere, thanks to the reports and coverage by the media fraternity.”
The Assam Sports Journalists’ Association marked the completion of hundred years with a year-long celebration that concluded on Saturday.
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