HAPPENING -- 21:

SPORTS STARS MOTIVATE STUDENTS AND PARENTS

P S SUNDAR 

The 1,250 students and their parents of Crescent Castle group of schools in Ooty had the benefit of listening to three women sportspersons and hence getting motivated to do something significant for the nation to win medals in the international arena.

“In keeping with our practice to provide the opportunity to our students and parents to interact with achievers, we brought in the Olympian Shiny Wilson as Chief Guest for the Annual Day celebrations of Crescent Play School and Crescent Castle Matriculation Higher Secondary School.  The first Indian women hockey umpire Anupama Puchimanda was the Guest of Honour.   We brought in Asian Gold Medalist M D Valsamma as Chief Guest for the Annual Day celebrations of Crescent Castle Public School teaching ICSE stream”, Crescent group Correspondent Umar Farouk told me.

Recalling her experience in undergoing high-altitude training at Wellington during her sporting years, Shiny Wilson said that there was no ground facility then and mostly, the athletes got trained on roads.   “Now, the Government has provided more facilities for undertaking high-altitude training which youngsters must utilise and win medals for the nation”, she said.

Anupama recalled her formative years when girls were discouraged to participate in international sports.   She related as to how she broke this taboo and became a woman umpire for hockey/.  Sharing her experience in officiating many international tournaments, she urged the youth to take up the games seriously.

Valsamma wanted parents to encourage their children to fine-tune their sporting talents because those who get trained well when young are the ones who achieve significantly.

They distributed awards to the students who excelled in academics and co-curricular activities.

The students staged variety entertainment programmes.

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