Patiala, May 16 (IANS) Sports Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, who on Monday visited the Netaji Subhash National Institute of Sports (NSNIS) here to take stock of preparations for the upcoming Rio Olympics, promised to send food supplements for the track & field campers in the next couple of days.
Sonowal, who was accompanied by sports secretary Rajiv Yadav, had discussions with the coaches of track and field events.
Chief national coach Bahadur Singh and foreign coaches Yuri Minako (shotput and discus) and Dmitri Vinayagan, (100-meter sprint and 4x100 metre relay), requested the minister for an indoor track and field track to provide better training facilities, especially during extremely cold and hot weather.
The minister assured that the Athletic Federation of India (AFI) would be contacted to send the food supplements in the next two days.
Sonowal also took a round of the Milkha Singh hostel and its mess and enquired about the facilities being provided for national campers, preparing for Rio.
Thereafter, the minister visited the weightlifting hall and interacted with junior national weightlifters. He also visited the recovery centre of the institute and studied the recovery facilities for sportspersons.
Sonowal along with Yadav, witnessed the various activities of the different departments of the faculty of sports sciences. They visited all the laboratories and interacted with sports scientists.
They also visited the P.T. Usha hostel for girls to take a look at the facilities for women national campers.
