BHUBANESWAR: The
International Hockey Federation
(FIH) on Saturday presented the prestigious FIH President’s Award to chief minister
Naveen Patnaik for his government’s contribution towards sports promotion particularly hockey.
FIH president Narinder Dhruv Batra presented the award to Naveen at the
Kalinga Stadium
here during the FIH hockey Olympic qualifier matches.
An official statement said the FIH president’s award was bestowed on Naveen during the 46th FIH Congress held in held New Delhi held in 2018.
Earlier, the Naveen Patnaik government has earned international accolades for transforming the Kalinga Stadium into a world-class stadium to host the 16-nation men’s hockey world cup in 2018. It had also successfully hosted other international events like Champions Trophy hockey in December 2014, Hockey World League in November-December 2017. Within a month after cyclone Fani, the Kalinga Stadium was revived to host the FIH hockey series finals in June.
In 2018,
Odisha government had also announced to be the official sponsor of the Indian men’s and women’s hockey team for a period of five years.
Besides promotion, the state government has also set up a high performance centre at the Kalinga Stadium for imparting world-class training to budding hockey players in the eastern region of the country.
Naveen on Saturday visited the Kalinga stadium to cheer for the Indian women’s and men’s hockey teams at the FIH Olympic qualifiers.
“Well played! Congratulate @TheHockeyIndia. Women's Team on qualifying for #Tokyo2020 in the FIH Hockey Olympic Qualifiers Odisha. The nation is very proud of what you have achieved here at the Kalinga Stadium,” Naveen tweeted.
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