School children participate in the sports camp organised by Tata Motors at the Telco grounds. Picture by Srinivas

Jamshedpur, Sept. 26: The 10-day training camp for underprivileged children of schools around Telco area kicked-off at Sumant Moolgaokar stadium here today.

Around 400 children, including underprivileged children from slums, took to some serious fitness schedule under expert coaches at the camp organised by the sports department of Tata Motors with an aim to improve the physical standards of these children and give them a basic idea of games.

Manager (sports), Tata Motors, R. Rameshan pointed out that as it was the first day of the camp, the emphasis was on physical fitness.

“We mainly concentrated on running, jogging and a few small exercises to check the fitness level of the children and prepare them for the training in specific disciplines in the days to come,” said Rameshan.

“As it is the opening day and many schools are yet to close, we got around 400 boys and girls. the numbers were expected to increase tomorrow,” Rameshan pointed out.

The organisers are expecting 800 students from different schools of Telco Colony and the slums dotting it to attend the camp. These kids are deprived of such camps and to allow them to make the most of these facilities would be one of the basic aims of the camp, explained Rameshan.

The officials pointed out that the camp would also aim at improving and, if there is a need, correcting the basics of different sporting disciplines followed by the children.

There are some children who practice a definite sport but some of the basic techniques are wrong. This poses a big problem for them in the future, said officials.

The children would be trained in different sports disciplines like athletics, football, hockey and volleyball. The children would be free to choose any sports disciplines according to their interest and they would be trained by international and expert coaches of Tata Motors.

In athletics, the children would be groomed by M.A. Aziz, an Asian Games medallist in the 4 x 100 m section while in football, the children would get expert training from K.C. Murmu, an international footballer.

Gajendra Bahadur Singh, who is a National Institute of Sports (NIS) coach, would also help him. P.Guria, another reputed player would coach the kids in hockey.

Santosh Singh, a technical official in athletics, would also train the kids in the camp.