Mumbai: Former Indian shooter Abhinav Bindra continued his vocal support for better sports infrastructure at grassroots level in India during a promotional event in Mumbai on Tuesday.
India’s only individual Olympic gold medalist stressed that improvements right from the bottom of the pyramid is the only way the country will get returns at the highest level.
“We lack grassroots level programmes, where young people are encouraged, where young people are given the adequate facilities; they are given the adequate know-how,” said Bindra.
“If we setup a strong grassroots programme, then only we will be able to get the sort of success we aspire to achieve. If you set up a strong base, that allows our athletes to set strong foundation and it will help us to grow and get many more champions,” added the ace shooter.
The Olympian also asked the government to look after the development at the grassroots level. “Government of India is doing good work in helping to fund the training of each athlete, but the funding still needs to infiltrate down to grassroots level,” the veteran suggested adding that it’s equally important to invest in Indian coaches.
The Olympic champion recently set up a high performance centre in Chandigarh. The one-of-a-kind centre will help athletes assess their performances as well as train. Bindra added that India is far behind in using technology and science to improve athletes’ performance.
