Bhubaneswar: Australia High Commissioner to India Barry O’Farrell AO has visited the iconic Kalinga Stadium here.
He was accompanied by Rowan Ainsworth, Australian Consul-General in Kolkata and Amy Keough, First Secretary, Australian High Commission.
The bouquet of High Performance Centres in multi sports disciplines within the Kalinga Stadium have become a centre of sports attraction in addition to the iconic Hockey and Athletics Stadium. Especially after the phenomenal performance of National Hockey teams at the Tokyo Olympics, there has been a heightened interest in Odisha’s Hockey ecosystem.
Barry O’ Farrell AO visited the Odisha Naval Tata Hockey High Performance Centre that trains over 100 boy and girl cadets for the elite level. He interacted with the cadets and coaches. He also visited the sports science and rehabilitation centre – the Odisha Abhinav Bindra Targeting Performance Centre, where Centre Head Pradeep Pillay demonstrated the bio mechanics and the assessment techniques used to assist athletes to better their performance.
Later, he visited the Hockey High Performance Centre and Kalinga Hockey Stadium, which has hosted some of the finest international hockey tournaments including the Men’s Hockey World Cup 2018 and will be again hosting the same in 2023.
Interacting with the cadets, the High Commissioner shared, “Odisha Government has developed remarkable facilities and is investing not only in infrastructure but also in each one of the cadet to develop them into elite players.”
Odisha Sports Secretary R. Vineel Krishna made a presentation on the rise of Sports in Odisha and different sports initiatives of the state to the delegation which was followed by interaction with Sports Department officials and Coaches of High Performance Centres.
Dileep Tirkey, Chairman, Odisha Hockey Promotion Council, Rajiv Seth, Project Director, Odisha Naval Tata Hockey High Performance Centre, and senior officials of the Odisha Sports Department were present on the occasion.