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Mumbai, February 9, 2014: Today, Mumbai witnessed intense action as 80 of the fastest sprinters from leading schools across the country competed against each other for the coveted title of Speedstar. A KOOH Sports initiative, Speedstar is a nationwide athletics talents hunt. The grand finale of “Speedstar Season 2” was held on a Sunday morning at the K. J. Somaiya Sports Ground, Mumbai.
KOOH Sports is a new age sports company set up with a passion to get kids of today to embrace sport and more importantly a healthier lifestyle.
In its second edition, Speedstar reached out to more than 1,700 schools and 25,300 kids across all sections of the society. KOOH Sports also partnered with Special Olympics Bharat, thereby making this India’s first unified athletics event.
In a span of 8 weeks, the Speedstar team travelled to 10 cities – Mumbai, Goa, Pune, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Chandigarh, Jalandhar, Jaipur, Lucknow and Hyderabad, with the overarching objective of promoting athletics at the grass root level in India.
The hunt was conducted for 4 age categories competing under two race formats – Under 10 (60 metre sprint) and Under 12,14,16 (100 meter sprint) for both boys and girls. The event was organised under the aegis of Athletics Federation of India in association with Griffith University and Yuva Unstoppable. The winners were felicitated by P.T. Usha – the brand ambassador for ‘Speedstar Season 2’, who also mentored the city winners before the finale.
The six (except the U10) winners of the grand finale will now head for a week long intensive training in Australia under the guidance of Sharon Hannan – a recognised Australian athletics coach and the ex-coach responsible for the success of Sally Pearson, the gold medalist at the London Olympics in 2012.
The winners of Speedstar Season 2 were declared as follows:
| Name of Participant | City | Category | Timing (Seconds) |
| Category – Under 10 Race Format- 60 meter | |||
| Prudhvi Raj | Hyderabad | Boy | 8.64 |
| SrushtiShetty | Mumbai | Girl | 9.38 |
| Category – Under 12 Race Format- 100 meter | |||
| Hare Krishna | Hyderabad | Boy | 12.06 |
| Mansi Pendarkar | Pune | Girl | 13.09 |
| Category – Under 14 Race Format- 100 meter | |||
| Gurinder Veer Singh- BOy | Jalandhar | Boy | 11.49 |
| Priyanka Chenoy- Girl | Pune | Girl | 13.28 |
| Category – Under 16 Race Format- 100 meter | |||
| Siddhi Hirray | Pune | Girl | 12.44 |
| KshitijBhoite | Pune | Boy | 11.072 |
Speedstar Brand Ambassador – India’s most successful sprinter P. T. Usha shared her excitement at the end of the hunt, “I have been associated with Speedstar for two years now. It’s great to see that an organisation like KOOH Sports has come forward to promote athletics at grassroots level and with proper training and guidance these kids can do very well in the field of athletics. We witnessed phenomenal talent this season and I am sure with right guidance some of these kids can represent our country at Olympics.”
Elaborating on the initiative, Mr. Prabhu Srinivasan, CEO and Co-founder, KOOH Sports said, “Speedstar was conceptualized in 2012 with intent to motivate kids and encourage schools to partake in athletics. The ‘Speedstar’ initiative is a movement to generate interest and awareness for the most natural form of sport – Running. With the hunt we have tried to bring the concept of “athlete first, sportsman later” in the mainstream sports training. We came across some really good talent this year and we will be considering adopting some of these kids for further education/training in athletics.”
Mr. Adille Sumariwalla, President, Athletics Federation of India (AFI) said, “Speedstar is indeed a commendable initiativewill not only manage to bring athletics to the forefront, but will also help generate an interest amongst kids across the country.By partnering with KOOH Sports and organizing Speedstar for second time in a row, we hope to cultivate a sporting culture amongst budding athletes and commence the process of an attitudinal shift towards the reception of sports in the country.”
Air Marshal Denzil Keelor, Chairman, Special Olympics Bharat: “We are very excited to be a part of Speedstar. Our association with KOOH Sports is forged to support each other for unified development of sports at the grass root levels in India. Our movement at SOB uses sports as a catalyst to transform the lives of kids with intellectual disability. Through an initiative like Speedstar our kids got a great platform to showcase and be recognised for their talent.”
