Nearly six years after hosting its first Special Olympics Bharat (SOB) event, Rural Development Trust (RDT) gears up to host a national level athletics coaching camp for athletes with intellectual disabilities. This will also be Special Olympic Bharat Andhra Pradesh’s (SOBAP) first national level coaching camp since the inception of the SOBAP in Anantapur through RDT in April this year.
The National Coaching Camp is scheduled between 8th and 13th of August 2016, and will be held at Anantapur Sports Village (ASV). Alongside the training of athletes, coach training sessions have also been planned during the course of the camp. Five SOB officials, four coaches and about 20 volunteers will assist the smooth running of the camp.
ASV is preparing to host as many as 250 athletes and another 50 team officials for the duration of the camp. These individuals will represent West and South regions of SOB and will come in from Maharashtra, Karnataka, Goa, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Gujarat, Telangana and parts of Andhra Pradesh. They will be joined by 20 RDT SOB athletes who will represent the hosts, Anantapur.
The camp will be training these athletes in various track and field events, namely 10mts assisted walk, sprints and relays, shot-put, softball throw, standing long jump, running long jump etc. Apart from hosting these athletes and giving them the best possible training for their respective sporting disciplines, RDT is also planning a cultural event for the athletes and officials to zone out of their hectic training, to have fun and enjoy themselves.
R. Dasarath, RDT’s Community Based Rehabilitation program Director said, “We were greatly honoured when SOB showed their faith in us, to entrust us with the smooth running of the state body, by asking us to base the SOBAP out of Anantapur. It brings us greater pride to be able to host our first ever coaching camp in the form of this SOB National Athletics coaching camp for SOB’s West and South regions. We look forward to receive each of these 250 children and foster them with the same love and care that we give to our own SOB athletes”
