GAIL-TFI – to identify and develop Olympic-level sprinters, enters into its last leg
Hunt for the next Milkha to culminate on 16th January at Thyagaraj Sports Complex, Delhi
New Delhi, December 18, 2014: “GAIL-The Fastest Indian”, a sports talent hunt with an aim to identify potential Olympic medal winners in Athletics, has entered into its last and final leg. Over the last three months, the first edition of the talent hunt traversed through 19 cities across the country. From Guwahati to Ahmedabad and Chandigarh to Kochi, over 5,000 school children in the age group of 12-14 years participated in their quest of becoming next Milkhaof India and securing medals for the country in 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The grand finale of the event will now be held on January 16 next year at the Thyagaraj Sports Complex, Delhi, which was one of the venues for the 2010 Commonwealth Games. The finals were earlier slated for December 14, 2014 in Bengaluru and it now been rescheduled on the requests of participants seeking little more time as most of them have just got free from their terminal examinations in the schools.
The Principal Mentor of the event and legendary athlete Padmashree’ Milkha Singh will be present in the grand finale and provide his valuable inputs in selecting and grooming the winners.
During the league stage, individual winners from each city were awarded with medals and prizes for being “GAIL-The Fastest Indian” of their respective cities. The talent hunt was an equal opportunity event for both boys and girls and was aimed at finding best talent in 100 m, 200m and 400m races.
The winners of the league stages held at 19 cities across the country are listed in the tournament website (www.thefastestindian.in) .The leader board on the website reflects the talent that resides within the country.
The best runners from across the country as displayed on the leader board will be given the chance to compete for the ultimate title of “GAIL-The Fastest Indian” during the grand finale on the 16th of January, 2015. Top 8 participants on the leader board in each category (100m, 200m, 400m for boys and girls)) will be participating in the finals to become “GAIL-The Fastest Indian” in the respective categories.
The winners of the finals will receive complete scholarship up to their post-graduation to focus on running and to motivate them. They would also receive specialized training from renowned national and international sports trainers.
Principal sponsors of the event, GAIL India Limited – India’s no-1 natural gas company, conceived the idea of finding the best athletics talent in the country and walked extra mile to make the event a grand success. The talent hunt matches with GAIL’s vision of unearthing the unpolished diamonds from the not-so-heard places of the country and providing them proper training and equal opportunities. The GAIL support would help them in bringing so many laurels and appreciations, including medals, for themselves and the country.
The other partners who are making this dream possible include IFIM Business School (Academic partner) which is providing scholarships, Anglian Medal Hunt (Technical Partner), sportskeeda.com (Digital media partner), Croma (Promotions partner), Fox Mandal (Knowledge partner), iCONGO(social justice partner), rightticket.in (Official partner), Yi (Out Reach partner) and Unibic (official cookie partner).