State-level PYKKA games to begin 15 Dec

GANGTOK, 06 Dec: Sports and Youth Affairs Department is organizing the state-level Panchayat Yuva Krida Aur Khel Abhiyan [PYKKA] Competition from 15 to 23 Dec at venues around Gangtok.
Department officials are working round-the-clock to organize the games in ten disciplines spread across venues at Paljor Stadium complex, Guards Ground and Tashi Namgyal Academy ground.
More than 1,200 athletes from all four districts are scheduled to take part in athletics, archery, boxing, badminton, football, kho-kho, taekwondo, table tennis, volleyball and wushu competitions.
More than 300 athletes from each district, who were the winners in the recently concluded district-level competitions, will be representing their respective district in the state-level competition.
The winning athletes and teams in the state-level PYKKA competitions will further represent Sikkim in the upcoming National PYKKA competitions scheduled to be held at different parts of the country.
SYA Joint Director, Doma Tshering, mentioned that ‘sports to all’ is the main objective of the PYKKA by promoting these identified ten disciplines from the block-level by providing them facilities and opportunities.
She added that the PYKKA sports competition aims the mass participation of the rural children and then to shortlist the potential and talented athletes to take them to the higher level from block levels to the national level.
It may be mentioned here that many talented athletes spotted in different disciplines in the block-level PYKKA competitions are now constantly representing Sikkim in their respective disciplines. A successful talent spotted during the last PYKKA competition was Dawdey Bhutia in archery, who represented her block in West Sikkim and then made it to the district-level and then state-level and also won a gold medal for Sikkim in the national level and now is regularly representing the state in different national competitions.
The PYKKA competitions have also been helping the various sports associations in the state to identify new talents from the grass root levels to hone their talents and skills further to take them to the higher levels.
Another component of the PYKKA scheme is the development of the school playground at the Zilla Panchayat Unit and Gram Panchayat Unit levels. The state government has identified 263 school playgrounds for development in the ZPUs and GPUs, of which 104 playgrounds have been developed so far and the rest will be covered by the year 2013-14.
Ms Bhutia stated that the state government has entrusted the responsibilities to develop the playground and to conduct the competition to the concerned Zilla and Gram panchayat presidents.