Advance Coaches Training Prog by SOB Sikkim Chapter begins at Paljor Stadium

ANUSHA GURUNG
GANGTOK, 11 Sept: A seven-day Advance Coaches Training Programme in football, athletics and volleyball is being held here at Paljor Stadium from 10 -16 September, which is organized by Special Olympics Bharat [SOB], Sikkim Chapter and sponsored by Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India.
Addressing a press conference today, SOB Sikkim Area Director, Dr BP Dhakal briefed about the Sikkim Chapter of SOB which started in the year 2005. “Special Olympics Bharat is an organization which aims to empower differently-abled children through sports”, said Dr Dhakal.
Dr Dhakal also appealed to the coaches to keep the flame of Special Olympics alive. The first agenda of the coaches should be service, he said.
“We are here for a noble cause to promote the vast area of Special Olympics through the medium of sports by organizing this Advance Coach Training Programme in these 3 disciplines; football, athletics and volleyball”, said Asia Pacific Coach, NK Chettri.
This 7-day training will cover orientation, basic rules and Panchayat Yuva aur Khel Krida Abhiyan [PYKKA] scheme for all the disabilities. This will also include the aims and objectives of project ‘Unify’ wherein some schools will be involved. “This is the new chapter we are adding this time”, said Mr Chettri.
He further informed that they are also thinking of adopting the Game Management System. GMS (Games Management System) is a database program designed to manage and record registration data, games, events, entries, divisioning, scores, and reports of a sport event. The software is especially useful for the purposes of running meets in individual sports involving timed events as it handles the process of divisioning automatically and without need for manual calculation and provides comprehensive reporting of results for athletes, coaches and spectators.
The training programme, which started yesterday, has a total number of 50 participants from Jharkhand, Bihar, Assam and also from Bhutan. During the formal inaugural function, Mr Chettri also thanked the Sports and Youth Affairs Department for providing them with various facilities.
Chief guest, Chairperson [Sikkim Olympic Bharat] Manita Pradhan welcomed all the coaches who have come from different states, representatives from Bhutan as well as the resource persons.
It is a difficult task to guide someone with a disability and the coaches play a vital role in guiding as well as training the differently-abled athletes, said Ms Pradhan.
“Special Olympics is not just an event these days but it has become a movement and we are trying to get other sections of the society to join this movement”, said Ms Pradhan.
Mentioning that the ratio of coaches and athletes is 1:6 she said that now coaches from PYKKA can also be brought in for this purpose. PYKKA aims to promote sports at the village level amongst both the differently-abled and normal persons, she added.
Ms Pradhan further urged all the coaches to dedicate themselves towards the cause during the training. She also highlighted that more women should be encouraged to participate in the Special Olympics Sikkim Chapter.
Also present on the day were Arjuna Awardee Jaslal Pradhan, Deputy Director Sports Department Ram Biswakarma, Deputy Director Sports Department Thupden Bhutia, Treasurer CP Dhakal and Coach Ram.