MADHYA PRADESH: The Khelo India Youth games will begin on Monday evening at Tatya Tope Nagar Stadium in MP. The fifth edition of the Khelo India Youth Games (KIYG) will be inaugurated by Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in the presence of the Union Minister for Sports and Youth Affairs Anurag Singh Thakur.
The KIYG will be held across 23 venues in eight cities of the state in which nearly 6000 athletes will take part. Overall 27 disciplines including water sports will be played at this event. It will be for the first time that sports like kayaking, canoeing, canoe slalom, and fencing will be part of the KYIG. The 6,000 will include multiple Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) Development athletes taking to the field.
“All preparations for organizing the Khelo India Youth Games have been completed. The games will start from Monday in a glittering manner on the theme ‘Hindustan Ka Dil Dhadka Do’ for 13 days,” Chouhan told reporters on Sunday.
The Target Olympic Podium Scheme, launched in 2014 under the aegis of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports (MYAS), Government of India, has been a professional setup to provide holistic support to all athletes. The scheme provides personalized coaching support to the athletes from the best global coaches, International training sessions, visa facilitation support as well as top-of-line research support to track opponent performances. The chief objective of the scheme is to provide financial assistance and other help to athletes in their pursuit of medals in the Olympics and other international sporting events.
The games will be held in eight MP cities – Bhopal, Indore, Ujjain, Gwalior, Jabalpur Mandla, Balaghat, and Khargone (Maheshwar) – while one cycling event will be held in Delhi.
A total of 303 international and 1,089 national officials will be part of the games and nearly 2,000 volunteers will be deployed at different sports venues, the official said.