Sports Minister makes surprise visit to KIUG venue, interacts with athletes

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Bengaluru, April 24 (MondayMirror.com) Sports Minister Anurag Thakur on Sunday paid a surprise visit to the Jain University Global Campus, the venue for the second edition of the Khelo India University Games (KIUG) and interacted with the athletes.

The Minister walked to various sports arenas and took cognizance of the arrangements made for the participants to ensure they have a memorable event at the KIUG.

“Watching these athletes here today, I am reminded of my University days when I played cricket. Some of the tournaments held in places like Darbhanga and Samastipur in Bihar, the facilities used to not be up to the mark,” said Thakur, while recalling his playing days.

“But infrastructure has improved so much today and you can see the kind of facilities being provided here for athletes. Our initiative through the KIUG is to provide athletes a platform that is on par with international standards,” he added.

The sports minister arrived at the volleyball venue in the morning when the matches between HRM(Himachal Pradesh University) and AWU (Adamas university West Bengal) in the women’s section and SRM university Chennai and AWU in the men’s section were underway. He interacted with both the teams, wished them good luck for their upcoming matches and also had an interaction with the referees and the audience too. Apart from this, the minister indulged in a round of volleyball himself.

Thakur also advised the budding athletes to play in the spirit of sportsmanship and stay away from performance-enhancing drugs.

“Play in the spirit of sportsmanship. I would advise them to propagate clean sports and not use performance-enhancing drugs. That’s why we have NADA here to give athletes the right information and create more awareness about doping particularly to young athletes at the university level,” the Minister Gaid.

The second edition of the Khelo India University Games is being hosted at the Jain Deemed-to-be University in Bengaluru from April 24 to May 3. KIUG 2021 is witnessing over 4,500 participants from around 190 universities battle it out across 20 disciplines, which include indigenous sports like Mallakhamba and yogasana.

Source: IANS