The Union Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports, Anurag Thakur, inaugurated a 300-bed hostel, a sports medicine centre, and an upgraded wrestling hall on Sunday in an effort to further strengthen the sporting infrastructure at the Sports Authority of India’s National Centre of Excellence (NCOE) in Lucknow. These facilities will meet international standards.
Elite female wrestlers from India train at SAI NCOE Lucknow, the site of national women’s wrestling camps. With the construction of the 300-bed hostel, NCOE Lucknow can now accommodate 460 athletes. The new dormitory will be exclusively for female athletes, while the old two hostels, which each have 80 beds, will continue to house the center’s boy trainees.
The sports medicine centre, which has been upgraded, will have sports science experts as well as a sports psychologist. Advanced biomechanics machines are being installed to make it a fully-equipped sports science centre.
Speaking at the launch, Thakur said, “The SAI Lucknow centre was a small centre earlier, which has now been revamped to match international training standards.”
“Our efforts are always to ensure that our athletes have the facilities to help them perform better, and these changes are a step in that direction.
Thakur emphasised the excellent performance of the women’s athletes at the center. He mentioned M. Martina Devi, a Manipuri weightlifter who trains at NCOE Lucknow and recently broke seven records at the Khelo India Youth Games in Madhya Pradesh.
“The facilities of a centre are put to the test when athletes from the
centre compete
