North East is new powerhouse of Indian sports

Guwahati, Feb 18 (UNI) Crippled with insurgency and economic backwardness, the North East, has always been in the news for all the wrong reasons but with every fourth medal at the 33rd Natioinal Games being bagged by an athlete from the North East, the region has showed it is also a sports super power.

After Imphal successfully held the National Games in 1999, they used the infrastructure to their advantage and since then it has been dominating the sporting events in the country.

''This time Asom is a surprise package. I am sure they will soon give tough competition to Manipur also,'' said the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) President Suresh Kalmadi.

Manipur alone took home 49 golds while Asom ended with 38 of the yellow metals. Sikkim got another two and Nagaland as well as Mizoram got one each. ''This is a superlative performance. We will now have a Rs 100 crore corpus to promote sports amongst the youth,'' said a beaming Asom Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi.

The Manipur Olympic Association (MOA) said that success could be attributed to the sporting culture. ''Come to Khman Lampak (sports complex), you will see how thousands of athletes are practicing every day,'' said Mr Singh.

Arjun Award winner Bhogehwar Baruah sharing his insights about Manipur's outstanding performance says, ''The players are hardworking.

They have the focus, besides the State has a culture in which sports and games have always been celebrated. Moreover, during the National Games at Manipur they got acquainted with modern facilities.'' In fact a close look at the medal tally will find Manipur players winning at least another 30 gold medals for states other then their home state.

Asom has also been a surprise package and notwithstanding the home advantage, even its most ardent supporters would not have dreamt of Asom securing 38 golds. ''This is great and the football gold was the icing on the cake for the grand finale,'' said Mr Ankur Dutta, President of the Asom Football Asociation.

First timer Nagaland also did not do badly as they go back with a sole gold from Tawekondo. In fact, Nagaland's 11 medals is a big harvest considering near primitive sporting infrastructure in the state.

Mizoram got its lone medal in boxing and Arunachal Pradesh found its way into the medals tally when much bigger and stronger states like Bihar went blank. The only state from the North East which has been found lacking is Tripura. The state sent a team of just 31 athletes and none were never serious medal contenders.

UNI