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Sports & Games Activities and Programs :
(a) At the school level all institutions are
provided sports equipments. Inter School competitions at the
district and the state level are organized on a regular basis in a
few chosen games.
Inter School women's’ football was introduced
in 1999 and this was not with great enthusiasm by the fairer sex.
The state championship in 2000 was won by the West District.
Inter School football for boys was also won by
the West District. Participation of Sikkim in the National School
Games been revived and the state school team participated in the
2000-2001 National championship in Table Tennis (Gujarat) and
Football (Jammu) in the month of December 2000.
For promoting excellence a ‘Search More
Bhaichung’ program was launched in 1999. Under this scheme a state
wide talent hunt for the best under 14 year old footballers was
carried out. In all over 6000 players were screened and a final
selection of 26 players was made.
A ‘Sports Hostel’ at Namchi has been started
that houses the boys. Board and lodge is provided and the players
are coached by the senior state coach of the department.
The Sports hostel team took part in the
‘sub-junior’ Subroto Mukerjee tournament held at Delhi in November
2000. The team did well in reaching the semi finals of the
tournament where it lost to the ‘Steel Authority of India’
football Academy.
On the initiatives taken by the department, the
Sports Authority of India has established a ‘Sports Training
Centre’ at Namchi under its Special Area Games Scheme.
The SAI Training Centre has the following three disciplines of
(i) Football;
(ii) Boxing; and
(iii) Archery for promotion.
Preliminary work of setting up a Sports Academy at Gangtok has
been initiated through short listing of talented juniors in
Football, Table Tennis and middle distance running.
Sports for the general public is organised and
promoted through the different state sports associations. Although
autonomous bodies most have been formed and established on the
initiative of the department. The activities and programmes of
these bodies are fully supported by the government through use of
the various infrastructural facilities, the use of equipments and
the technical support of its district sports officers and coaches.
There are now a total of 13 state associations and 3 district
sports associations. These are listed below :
i) Sikkim Archery Association
ii) Sikkim Amateur Athletic Association
iii) Sikkim Basketball Association
iv) Sikkim Body Building Association
v) Sikkim Amateur Boxing Association
vi) Sikkim Badminton Association
vii) Sikkim Cricket Association
viii) Sikkim Football Association
ix) Sikkim Tae Kwon Do Association
x) Sikkim Amateur Tae-Kwon-Do Association
xi) Sikkim Karate Association
xii) Sikkim Table Tennis Association
xiii) Sikkim Veterans Association
xiv) South District Sports Association
xv) West District Sports Association
xvi) North District Sports Association
xvii) Sikkim Olympic Association
The Major competitions and tournaments organized and conducted by
these associations include :
(i) “The Chief Ministers. Gold Cup Archery Tournament” initiated
in 1999.
(ii) The Vijay Merchant Cricket Tournament.
(iii) The Khangchendzonga Invitational Boxing Tournament:
(iv) “The Eastern India & Mr. Sikkim” Body Building competition.
(v) “The Open Marathon” competition.
(vi) The All India Sikkim Governor’s Gold Cup Tournament.
(vii) “The 10th North Eastern Sports Festival” organized by the
Department. Apart from these highlights all the associations
conduct league and state championships on a regular basis.
The past few years has seen the state
team/players making their mark at the National and International
level.
(i) The state junior Football team were runners-up in the Junior
National Championship’s held at Manipur in 1998-99.
(ii) Tae Kwon Do championships, held at Hong Kong in 2000.
(i) SHRI HEERA PRADHAN REPRESENTED INDIA & SHRI TRILOK SUBBA WAS
CHOSEN AS THE NATIONAL COACH FOR THE COMPETITION.
The bestowing of the ‘Arjuna Award’ on Shri Bhaichung Bhutia was a
matter of great pride to all Sikkimese.
The year 2000 has ended on an encouraging note when recent
National Championships for Tae Kwon Do, held at Bangalore on the
29th, 30th & 31st December, Sikkim bagged a total of 20 medals. To
include : 4 Gold Medals, 10 Silver Medals and 6 Bronze Medals.
To make a mark at the National level, the Department of Sports has
acquired the services of 3 international sports-persons, all from
Sikkim and employed them as coaches of the Department. They are
(i) Shri Jaslal Pradhan (Arjuna Awardee) - Boxing
(ii) Shri Jigmee Youzer - Archery
(iii) Shri Thupden Rongkup - Archery
So as to encourage sports and sports-persons the government has been
pleased to issue two notification :
(i) Facilities of leave - as duty for sports-persons, technical
officials and judge for recognized state zonal, Inter-state and
international competitions &
(ii) Cash Award incentives for athletes, players and teams for
winning medals in recognized national competition.
(iii) Under the Government of India incentive scheme scholarships
at Rs. 5.400/- per student/annum is provided by the Sports
Authority of India for deserving sports-persons. The selection is
based on performances registered at the district, state and
interstate competitions. 72 such scholarships to include 16
National level scholarships at Rs. 7,200/-per annum was awarded to
Sikkimese boys and girls for the year 1999-2000.
Under its programs of infrastructural
development the focus of the government is on the up gradation of
the Paljor Stadium into a modern sports complex.
The sources of funding has now been tied up and the work is in
full progress.
Under its youth program schemes, two of the
major ones that are organized on an all India Basis by the
Government of India i.e. the National Service Scheme and the
National Cadet Corp. Sikkimese youth are provided the opportunity
to participate in activities that inculcate discipline, a sense of
responsibility towards the society, a sense of national ‘ONENESS’
through integration camp programs as also to compete and excel.
The main activities were as under:
(i) Basic Leadership Course - mountaineering, conducted in
association with the ‘Sonam Gyamtso Mountaineering Institute’.
(ii) A major integration camp with the participation of 700 youths
from all over the country was organized at Rangpo in November,
2000. The Camp was held for a total of 10 days.
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