Date:07/05/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/07/stories/2008050760952200.htm

Sport - Volleyball

Encouraging response, says Syamsundar Rao

Special Correspondent

Most participants in the trials were tall
Rao expresses gratitude to SAI-STC officials

HYDERABAD: National volleyball coach M. Syamsundar Rao has reason enough to be upbeat. The response to the Volleyball Federation of India’s youth selection trials held at the Rajiv Gandhi Port indoor Stadium (Visakhapatnam) on May 5 and 6 has been encouraging, he says, with 92 boys turning up from 19 States.

Of these 36 have been selected for a camp that commences at the Sports Authority of India’s Sports Training Centre (SAI-STC) in Visakhapatnam on Wednesday and continues till June 18.

Many of the participants in the trials were tall in keeping with the trend the world over, where height has come to play a prominent role in modern-day volleyball.

Present for the trials were senior National team coach G.E. Sreedharan and Union Ministry of Sports observers Kutty Krishnan and Mulini Reddy, both of them Arjuna Awardees.

“There’s normally a year’s time for preparation for the Asian youth championships. This year we are left with just a few months, since the event is scheduled at Colombo from October 14 to 21,” said Rao, who is a Dronacharya and Arjuna Awardee.

While expressing gratitude to officials of the SAI-STC for the arrangements they’d made for successful conduct of the trials, he said the priority accorded to the sport by SAI Director-General R.P. Wattal and Ministry of Sports Joint Secretary Srinivas Rao was quite reassuring.