Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Carrying the spirit of the School Games to Chennai
|
Competing under the Tamil Nadu banner has often been a rich and rewarding experience for many athletes from Kerala. The Kespa School Games, which the Kerala Sports Persons Association organised in Chennai, could just be a small way of saying thank you to their adopted State, says STAN RAYAN.
|
ON A NEW TRACK AND A NEW COURT... Shiny Wilson, The president of the Kespa.
THERE IS a buzz of excitement every time a race begins. A thousand eyes watch the athlete getting set and taking off, to glory or to agony. And as the run nears the tape, the shutterbugs rush off on a small race of their own, to capture the best possible frame of the victor, and if possible, also a few clicks on the agony of losing.
And after the race, the winner is often forced to do the `talkathon', answering the countless questions that the few dozen keyboard knights keep throwing up. A few moments later, the athlete runs back to the track, or to the jumping pit as the case may be, and willingly goes through the `action' all over again for some of the lensmen who missed his feat, performing with a big smile this time.
All the local newspapers are packed with the Games the next morning, with the event taking up four or five full pages. For the School Games are an occasion for almost everybody connected with sport in Kerala to celebrate.
Early this week, a group of Malayali sports stars in Tamil Nadu made an attempt to recreate this magic in Chennai, by organising the School Games there. The `Kerala Sports Persons Association' (Kespa), which was formed a few years ago, conducted the Games in five events, athletics, swimming, football, basketball and volleyball. And they are thrilled by the experience.
"We were just used to running earlier, so organising the event was a rich experience, it also taught us a lot of things. And we've decided to have the Games as an annual affair," said the former queen of track, Padmashri Shiny Wilson who is also the president of Kespa.
The Games attracted over 1,000 children from 60 schools, but unlike Kerala, swimming was a bigger hit than athletics in Chennai. "There is a lot of interest for swimming in the junior and sub-junior age-groups in Chennai. And there were some 450 swimmers for the Games,'' says former international Wilson Cherian, Shiny's husband.
"The Games were a nice way of giving something back to the sport which has made us what we are today," says former Indian basketball captain Jayashankar Menon, the secretary of Kespa and one of the brains behind the event and the association.
For a change, almost all the trophies were named after some of the people connected with sport who had passed away in the last few years, and this list included athletes, organisers and even a journalist. "We just wanted to remember them and their good deeds,'' said Jayashankar, the first Indian basketballer in the Asian All-Star list.
Jayashankar Menon, Secretary of the Kespa.
All the members of Kespa were given roles to perform during the Games and the list of chairpersons of the various committees made interesting reading: Anju Bobby George handled athletics, Prasanna Jayashanakr was in charge of basketball, K. Saramma was responsible for the ceremonies, Tinu Yohannan for publicity and J. K. Mahendra for cultural events. "It was nice to see an athlete like Shiny running from pillar to post to organise her event. And for once some of our big stars were even volunteers during the Games," said Jayashankar.
The media response was not as big as in Kerala, but it was very encouraging, says Shiny. "The School Games are always a mega affair back home, the media goes ga-ga over the event sometimes even weeks before the Games. It was much smaller here in Chennai, but we've just started. Things will improve,'' says the former Asian queen.
The Kespa plans to make the Games a bigger affair next year, with more events too. And according to Jayashankar, enquiries have already started coming in from schools for the next event.
Chennai has proved to be the Promised Land for many top athletes from Kerala. The experiences of Anju Bobby George, the World Championship bronze medallist, and Shiny Wilson are classic cases.
Kerala athletes have now pooled in their experiences and made an attempt to raise the standard of sport in Tamil Nadu.
A laudable effort indeed!
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
|
