India launches hunt for the next Milkha Singh

Milkha Singh at ‘The Fastest Indian’ press conference

New Delhi, September 22, 2014:

Heralding a new era in Indian athletics with the potential to produce Olympic-level sprinters, GAIL (India) Limited in association with Spoment today announced the launch of the country’s most ambitious sports talent hunt ‘GAIL-The Fastest Indian’ (GAIL TFI) to identify, groom and develop champions who can win laurels for the country.

Legendary athlete and ‘Padmashree’ awardee Shri Milkha Singh will be the principal mentor for the annual event and help select and groom potential winners.

Over the next three months, GAIL-TFI will conduct events across 19 cities reaching over 3,000 schools. Young boys and girls in the age group 12 to 14 years will receive an opportunity to compete for the title of ‘GAIL-The Fastest Indian’. Winners from the various cities would be invited for the finals scheduled for December 14, 2014 in Bengaluru.

GAIL (India) Limited, the country’s No. 1 Natural Gas company and a Maharatna PSU, is the principal partner of the event which will be organized by Spoment, a global sports, media and entertainment company.

The highlight of this spectacular event is that the winners of the finals will receive complete scholarship up to their post-graduation so that they can focus on running and not have to worry about securing their future. They would also receive specialized training from renowned national and international sports trainers.

Speaking on the occasion, ‘The Flying Sikh’ Shri Milkha Singh said, “I am very happy that GAIL and Spoment have taken this initiative. This project is the need of the hour. It will help find many more Milkha’s from the length and breadth of this country.”

GAIL Chairman and Managing Director Shri B C Tripathi said, “GAIL is a brand associated with energy, youthfulness and growth. The company’s lean and nimble workforce has worked hard to make it the country’s fastest growing Maharatna company in 30 short years. Association with the search for the fastest Indian thus comes naturally for GAIL. Athletics as a sport is a true test of human endurance, redefining the limits we set on ourselves. We are sure that a country of a billion plus has a lot of extraordinary talent that is untapped. What is required is a little help and little faith. We hope to be that help.”

According to Shri Darshan M, Director, Spoment, “GAIL-The Fastest Indian is much more than a talent hunt, it’s a dream for Indian sports. It is an ambitious attempt to discover, groom and develop Indian Olympic level athletes.”

While the first edition of GAIL-TFI will cover 19 cities, it will be expanded over time to reach all 800 districts of the country, thus becoming the world's largest ever athletics talent competition.

The other partners who are making this dream possible include IFIM Business School (Academic partner) which is providing scholarships, Manipal Hospitals(Medical partner), sportskeeda.com(Digital media partner), Croma (Promotions partner), Fox Mandal(Knowledge partner), iCONGO(social justice partner), rightticket.in (Official partner), CII Yi (Out Reach partner) and Unibic (official cookie partner).

The cities where the event will be held and the dates are given below. The exact venues will be announced in due course.

No.	City	Date
1	Ludhiana	7 Oct 2014
2	Chandigarh	10 Oct 2014
3	Bhopal	13 Oct 2014
4	Delhi	14 Oct 2014
5	Ahmedabad	16 Oct 2014
6	Jaipur	17 Oct 2014
7	Mumbai	20 Oct 2014
8	Goa	27 Oct 2014
9	Hyderabad	30 Oct 2014
10	Rudrapur	7 Nov 2014
11	Chennai	10 Nov 2014
12	Lucknow	12 Nov 2014
13	Kochi	15 Nov 2014
14	Banaras	17 Nov 2014
15	Bangalore	20 Nov 2014
16	Patna	22 Nov 2014
17	Ranchi	25 Nov 2014
18	Guwahati	27 Nov 2014
19	Bhubaneswar	29 Nov 2014
20	Finals - Bangalore	14 Dec 2014