Twelve young athletes, including four girls from Odisha qualified for the national trials of the GAIL Indian Speedstar (GIS) Contest, scheduled to be held at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi to be held next month. The 12 were selected from the state trial, held here at the Kalinga Stadium today.

A total of 108 youngsters from different districts of Odisha, selected at the district trials participated in the state trial along with the shortlisted five wild card entrants who were selected a day prior to the state trials.

The state trial was graced by Petroleum & Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan along with selection committee member Anuradha Biswal and accomplished Odisha athletes Dutee Chand and Purnima Hembram and GAIL (India) Ltd CMD B C Tripathi.

The top nine athletes who meet the benchmark set by the National selection committee headed by the legendary PT Usha with the other members being Olympians, Rachita Mistry, Anuradha Biswal and Asian and Commonwealth Games medalist, Kavita Raut, will be provided specialized training so as to prepare them for the 2020/2024 Olympics.

GAIL-Indian Speedstar is a CSR initiative by GAIL (India) Limited aims to spot, screen, select and groom young athletes in the age group of 11-17 years in 100m, 200m and 800m track events across the country.  The event was part of the initiative taken by National Yuva Cooperative Society (NYCS) as part of nationwide campaign to find out athletes for 2020/2024 Olympics.

The initiative in its first year kick-started earlier this year with initial trials conducted at 55 districts across 10 states in which more than 25,000 kids and youth participated out of which 850 kids/youth finally made it to the State level Camp and Selection. National Yuva Cooperative Society has tied up with M/s Anglian Medal Hunt Company as its Technical Partner for this project.

ODISHA QUALIFIERS FOR NATIONAL TRIALS:
100 metre: U-14 boys: Ashish Mohapatra (Bhubaneswar). U-14 girls: Sukhi Baskey (Sundergarh). U-17 boys: Kamakshya Naik (Cuttack), Bikash Kashyap (Bhubaneswar). U-17 girls: Raibari Tiria (Bhubaneswar).
200 metres: U-14 boys: Arbin Minz (Sundergarh), Rati Ranjan (Bhubaneswar); U-14 girls: Sukhi Baskey. U-17 boys: Kamakshya Naik, Krishna Munda (Bhubaneswar), Prasanjit Kujur (Cuttak). U-17 girls: Jyoshna Sabar, Laxmi Muduli (both Bhubaneswar).
800 metre: U-17 boys: Roshan Minz (Cuttak).