STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: The week-long ‘Talent Hunt Camp’ by famous footballer of J&K, Arun Malhotra received encouraging response from the rural folk with around 50 young boys and girls reporting on the opening day on Tuesday.
The camp is being supervised by a team of qualified coaches and senior players at the newly constructed Football Astroturf by the Department of Youth Services and Sports (DYSS) at Khel Goan, Nagrota in the outskirts of the city.
Organised by the Sports Saviour Football Club (SSFC) and supported by the DYSS, Arun Sharma Sports and Social Welfare Trust (Regd) and Sportsline, the camp was formally inaugurated by former footballer and Additional Commissioner Revenue, Jammu, Rakesh Dubey in the presence of Vipan Gupta, a tall footballer, who has represented J&K 12 times in prestigious Santosh Trophy.
Speaking to the young participants, the chief guest quoted examples of how champions are made with hardwork and focused attention. He advised football enthusiasts to grab the opportunity on their door step and learn as much as they can during this week-long camp by a renowned international player from J&K.
The first 90-minute session turned out to be an eye opener for most of the young football enthusiasts, who were divided into different groups so as to give them personalised attention thus maintaining the social distancing in view of the Covid-19 guidelines.
Except for a symbolic group photograph with the special guests, the participants remained scattered around the modern football Astroturf.
“Such a response from the rural youth in the outskirts of the city really motivated me to go further into the talented stuff around the rural belts of Jammu. These young boys seem to be strong enough to take up the game of football in a big way. I’m sure that with the upcoming facilities at the Khel Gaon by DYSS, the day is not far when Nagrota would become sports hub,” said Arun at the end of opening day of the Camp.
Unlike his earlier initiatives of training young footballers through brief camps, Arun, this time, has decided to make it a long term talent hunt and grooming exercise.
“With the support of our partners in my endeavour to reach out to the talented stuff at the district level, a comprehensive plan has been made this time to first look for the young talent and them groom, guide and promote them to the right earnest,” mentioned Arun.
The technical penal supporting Arun included Vishal Bandral, Nitika, Khushboo, Tillu Kumar, Ramesh Sharma, Viinay Kumar, Rakesh Kumar, Dushyant Sharma, Narinder Kumar, Sham Lal, Arun Nagyal and Gagandeep Singh.
Prominent among those present were Ashutosh Sharma, Trustee, Arun Sharma Sports and Social Welfare Trust; first class cricketer, Vikrant Taggar and international Handball player Gourav Sharma.