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Journalism of Courage
PUNE, Jan 27: The idea of offering sports facilities at Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex to other countries seems to be taking off after five years, if the visit of Mauritius minister of Youth Affairs and Sports, Marie Claude Arouff-Parfait is any indication.
The Mauritius ministerwas accompanied by V M Deshmukh, deputy director of sports Maharashtra . After a casual glance at the brochure handed to her she went about taking a look at the facilities. She was shown around and briefed by Captain Chandrakant Bhosale, principal of the sports academy within the complex, and Anand M Khare, officer on special duty.
Seeing the facilities at the complex including the main stadium, the swimming pool the gymnasium and the wrestling halls, the newly built indoor basketball stadium and the indoor stadium for table tennis and volley ball, impressed her.
Later she disclosed that the purpose of her visit to the country was to meet people in sports and do something for the youth of her own country entering the next millennium. She is herself a keen sportsperson who plays tennis and is fond of swimming. In her early days she even played volleyball for her country and indulged in games like football besides being an athlete.
She will later be signing a Youths and Sports protocol with the Government of India, at Delhi. She expressed her interest in bringing her sportspersons to train here and also employ Indian coaches in her own country. While Mauritius excels in boxing and judo, one of their swimmers also won a gold at the last Commonwealth games. Her nearest goal is the African Games in September in South Africa which would enable them to select individuals for the Olympic games in Sydney.
She then left to attend the NSS camp organised by the Maharashtra Arogya Mandal’s Ayurvedic College at Hadapsar before going to Mumbai to meet the Maharashtra chief minister. Other visits on the agenda include the National Sports Institute at Patiala, National Institute of Physical Education, Gwalior, sports infrastructures and youth hostels in Goa, sports manufacturing units in Jullandhar and Patiala before making a last stop at Delhi.
