442 players attend trials in 15 sports disciplines

Our Sports Correspondent

Ludhiana, February 12

As many as 442 players (boys and girls) turned up for the selection trials conducted by the Punjab Sports Department here today. These aspirants attended the trials for registration in sports wings being run at different schools across the Ludhiana district.

The players had been asked to appear for the selection trials in 18 sports disciplines — athletics, archery, basketball, badminton, boxing, cycling, football, gymnastics, hockey, handball, judo, kho-kho, lawn tennis, softball, rifle shooting, volleyball, weightlifting and wrestling.

Ravinder Singh, District Sports Officer (DSO), said trials for archery were organised at GHG Khalsa College, Gurusar Sadhar, while in three events (hockey, handball and cycling), trials were held on the Punjab Agricultural University campus. In the remaining 14 disciplines, arrangements were made here at Guru Nanak Stadium.

The DSO informed that maximum number of players 60 (31 boys and 29 girls) reported for trials in judo, followed by archery in which 53 players (27 boys and 26 girls) were registered. Volleyball, gymnastics and handball received 43, 42and 39 aspirants, respectively. Three disciplines namely basketball, football and rifle shooting did not get any aspirant.

The players in these three sports disciplines might have missed the trials because of exams, said the DSO.

“The selected players will be enrolled in the sports wings as per seats available who will be given Rs 100 per player daily and Rs 200 to each player per day as diet money, besides free coaching under the sports promotion policy,” he added.