Bangalore :
Commonwealth and Asian Games medallist disabled swimmer Prasanta Karmakar is looking forward to the day when the Sports Authority of India will start a specialized SAI Training Centre (STC) for disabled athletes after receiving the Diploma in Sports coaching on Wednesday.
“I wanted to learn more about sports and that was the reason why I joined this course. And today I feel that all the elites in our country should find some time to do this course. It will surely help them to prolong their careers by few years,” said Karmakar, who landed from Mumbai just in time to receive the certificate of honour.
“I have requested the SAI director to start special courses to train para athletes. He has promised to look into the matter but I hope something positive happens,” said Karmakar echoing the sentiments of disabled athletes in the country.
Karmakar, who was the first Indian to win a medal in the Commonwealth Games for disabled and Asian para Games, is confident that the diploma will help to do well as a coach. “I’m employed by the Haryana government but I will get leave so I can go to train athletes,” he said.
Karmakar was one among the 102 students who got provisional certificates for successfully completing the 10-month course at an impressive ceremony at the National Institute of Sports, Southern Centre here. The new coaches will get their certificate and mark list on the completion of their two-month internship at the various SAI centres across the country.
The highest number of coaches passed out in athletics (24) followed by swimming (21) and kabbadi (18). Surprisingly, tennis (6) had the lowest number of coaches followed by badminton (7).
‘Appoint them as assistant coaches’
Olympian Ashwinini Nachappa, who was the guest of honour asked SAI to give the graduates more exposure by attaching them to the national camps.
“Two months of internship is not enough. They should be appointed as assistant coaches with the foreign trainers as it will help them to learn a lot,” she said.
Bangalore University vice-chancellor BN Thimme Gowda exhorted the new coaches to acquire more skills and do research in sports. “You should all try and go to the next level. Try and do the masters and take up research,” he said.
SAI director Ramachandran, head of academics Nataraj, former national champion in badminton U Vimal Kumar were also present at the graduation ceremony.
The winners:
Best Student: Siju Joseph (volleyball).
Toppers: Athletics: KS Peter, Badminton: Ravikant Singla, Hockey: K Vishnu Kumar Prashant, Kabaddi: Dharmendra Kumar, Lawn tennis: Resham Singh, Swimming: Tejas Nayar, Taekwondo: Vishal Arya, Volleyball: Siju Joseph. GTMT – Vishal Arya (taekwondo), Kinetics/Biomechanics — Deepak PC (hockey), Sports medicine/anthropometry – Shobana (hockey), Sports physiology – Asha J (swimming), Sports psychology: Shobana (hockey).
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> Sports> More Sports> Athletics / by Biju Babu Cyriac, TNN / May 01st, 2014