Bhubaneswar: The Hon Barry O’Farrell AO, Australia’s High Commissioner to India accompanied by Ms Rowan Ainsworth, Australian Consul-General in Kolkata and Ms Amy Keough, First Secretary, Australian High Commission visited the Kalinga Stadium where he was greeted by Shri Dileep Tirkey, Chairman, Odisha Hockey Promotion Council, Shri. R.Vineel Krishna, Secretary Sports, Govt.of Odisha, Shri Rajiv Seth, Project Director, Odisha Naval Tata Hockey High Performance Centre, and seniorofficials of the Odisha Sports Department.
The bouquet of High Performance Centres in multi sports disciplines within the Kalinga Stadium havebecome 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.
The Hon. 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 and was given a tour by Rajeev Seth. Thereafter the hon’ble High Commissioner, 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, they 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, Hon’ble 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.”
Wishing them the very best, he added that he would look forward to seeing each one of them play on the world stage in the future.
The visit culminated in Sports Secretary, Shri R Vineel Krishna making 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.
