Tirupati: AFI to select 80 athletes for Olympic games 2020

Tirupati: Athletic Federation of India (AFI) will select 80 junior athletes 'scientifically' based on their performance in the National Inter District Junior Athletics Meet (NIDJAM) to be held in SVU Tarakarama Stadium from November 23-25 to train them further to Olympics-2020 to be held in Tokyo.

Revealing this during a press conference after inaugurating the media centre at the stadium on Wednesday, District Collector Dr N Bharat Gupta called upon all the students to visit the stadium to watch the games. When athletes from across the country come here and perform, students can get inspired by watching their talents, he opined.

To facilitate the students to visit the stadium, he would like to speak to the District Educational Officer (DEO) on the possibility of declaring holidays for schools at least in Tirupati on Saturday and Monday. Today, 30 per cent of the athletes and officials have arrived from various places and by tomorrow this number may touch 80 per cent, he said. Everything was in order and senior district level officials will be monitoring the situation at each one of 12 venues, he said and added due to ongoing rains, there was some problem with athletic track but it would be put in order by Thursday and athletes could practice on it.

Joint Collector II VR Chandramouli, RDO V Kanaka Narasa Reddy, CEO of District Sports Authority S Lakshmi, Assistant Municipal Commissioner Haritha, I&PR DD Ramakrishna, AFI representatives Stanely Joseph, Divesh and other officials participated.