New Delhi: Sports Minister Vijay Goel today inaugurated the Khelo India National-level competitions for various sports for Under-14 and Under-17 children.
The Delhi leg of the competitions, organised by Sports Aunthority of India, will include swimming, cycling and wrestling.
The Minister also presented medals to the winners of the swimming events in different categories.
Also present on the occasion were Sports Secretary Injeti Srinivas, ace swimmers Khazan Singh and Bhanu Sachdeva, Meenakshi Pahuja and hundreds of school children from across the country.
Approximately 1000 participants from more than 25 states and union territories are taking part in the competitions.
Goel said that Khelo India competitions are being conducted not only to promote sports at grass-root level but also to help create sports infrastructure in the country.
He said it will provide a platform to the budding talents to compete at national level. Talent identification would also be done in the process for grooming them to achieve excellence at international level.
He said a national portal for Sports Talent Search will be launched this month by the Sports Ministry.
While swimming and cycling events were conducted today both for boys and girls Under-14 and Under-17 categories, wrestling competitions (freestyle) for cadet group 14 years to 16 years both boys and girls would be held for two days on January 20 and 21 at SAI Indira Gandhi Sports Complex here.
Khelo India national level competitions will be conducted in different disciplines in January and Febuary this year.
Kabbadi, kho kho and wushu would be held in Nellore; weightlifting, boxing and table tennis in Guwahati; athletics hand ball and hockey in Gandhi Nagar; taekwondo, volleyball and football in Chennai; badminton, gymnastics, basketball and lawn tennis in Hyderabad and archery and Judo in Jaipur.