Shreyasi’s success underscores Bihar potential in sports

PATNA: Felicitation of Banka district native in Bihar and shooter Shreyasi Singh (23) by the state BJP on Wednesday for winning silver medal in singles double trap event at the Glasgow (Scotland, UK) Commonwealth Games (CWG) this year turned into a collective concern that the state should have adequate sports infrastructure for aspiring sportspersons to be trained well for big-ticket events.
Speakers at the function felt that even though the state has aspiring talented youths, it lacks matching infrastructural facilities, including stadiums and coaches, which is why a pool of fully-trained sportspersons is difficult to be formed to show their excellence in major sports events like national games, Asiad, CWG and Olympics.
Incidentally, after a long confusion, the state government on Wednesday gave Shreyasi state honour for her performance at CWG, Glasgow. The felicitation programme at the party’s state headquarters was held on Wednesday by the party’s state sports forum and Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM). It was addressed by Shreyasi’s mother and former MP Putul Devi, Pandey himself, leader of opposition in the state assembly Nand Kishore Yadav, state assembly deputy speaker Amarendra Pratap Singh, two former sports and culture ministers Sukhda Pandey and Renu Devi and party’s senior functionaries Surajnandan Kushwaha and Sanjay Mayukh, among others.
They wished Shreyasi a bright future in the upcoming international events, including Olympics. Putul Devi added a poignant touch to her story when she said before Shreyasi was shortlisted for selection tests before the 2010 CWG games, she, along with her, was in London attending on critically ill Digvijay Singh, Putul’s husband and former Union minister.
Seeing Shreyasi’s reluctance to return to Delhi owing to the critical condition of her father, Putul told her daughter to participate in the selection tests, so that her father’s dream to see her as a shooting champion could eventually be realized.