GAIL India zonal ’Speed Star’ season three trials today, Jan 20

GAIL India zonal ’Speed Star’ season three trials today, Jan 20

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangaluru, Jan 20, 2018: Zonal-level selection trials for GAIL Indian Speed Star as part of NYCS-GAIL Raftaar season three will be held at Mangala Stadium here on January 20.

Organised by the National Yuva Cooperative Society (NYCS) in association with GAIL India, the trials is part of an ongoing programme to see Indian athletes excel in core events - 100m, 200m and 400m sprints in the Olympics in 2020 and 2024 and bring home the laurels.

With the organisers prescribing qualifying benchmarks, Ramesh K, state convener, said athletes in 11-14years and 15-17years category meeting the mark at various zonal meets, will qualify for the state-level selection to be held at Bengaluru, where, they will undergo a two-day training. Top state athletes will make it to the national-level for a week-long training camp. Top athletes at the national-level will vie to make it to the Olympics-level training camp.


GAIL India will bear the cost that each athlete incurs during the course of the selection for these various levels of camps from the district level including their travelling, boarding and lodging expenses. While 1.38 lakh students in the age-groups took part in zonal selections across India in the first two seasons, 110 and 124 made it to the national camps in 2015-16 and 2016-17 respectively and 14 out of these 234 athletes made the cut off for the Olympics-level training.


These 14 athletes from season two will embark on a specialized training camp at the Usain Bolt Sport Academy in Jamaica from January 25. Even school dropsouts with birth certificates are eligible to participate in trials, he noted.