Harkirat Singh Wilkhu (left), co-ordinator of Apollo Group of Hospitals, speaks at the medical camp at JRD Tata Sports Complex in Jamshedpur on Monday. (Srinivas)

Jamshedpur, Aug. 9: They may be “special” but they need fitness as much or even more than regular athletes.

Keeping this in mind, the Special Olympics Bharat (SOB) chapter of Jharkhand organised a zonal coaching camp that kicked off on Saturday at JRD Tata Sports Complex with medical testing facilities.

The steel city has been given this “special” honour for the first time.

“We were scheduled to conduct health check-ups of our athletes in June. But the schedule had to be postponed in deference to the prevailing heat wave. Sixty-one athletes from the steel city, Ranchi, Bokaro and Ramgarh went through various tests today, including fit feet, ortho deficiencies and physical tests of height and weight. Over 60 more athletes will attend a similar exercise tomorrow,” said Satbir Singh, assistant area director of SOB (state chapter).

Along with the state unit of SOB, the co-organisers for the health camp were Tata Steel and Apollo Group of Hospitals (Hyderabad) and state unit of SOB. Satish Pillai, SOB (state chapter) president and Adrian Kennedy, advisor to Apollo Group, doctors of Tata Main Hospital, among others, were present on the occasion.

The state’s 55-member team of special athletes, along with counterparts from Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, Sikkim, Assam, Manipur and Mizoram, have been sweating it out at the east and north-east coaching camp, where around 250 participants are participating enthusiastically in warm-up sessions, learning football, handball, hockey and volleyball moves under the eye of experienced coaches.

According to Singh, the training camp is meant for football (only boys) and handball only while the volleyball and hockey matches will be competitive ones. “Football players are training and playing in the matches as well,” he said.

Singh also said the men’s outfits of Jharkhand and Bengal would clash for the volleyball title on August 11. “A five-a-side soccer tournament has been scheduled for tomorrow evening at the Tata Football Academy,” he added.

In hockey, the entry in the summit clash have made Jharkhand spikers a spirited lot. “The boys are excited and raring to win the finals. Rajiv Singh and Vinod Kumar are playing very well. Tajinder Singh of Asha Kiran is also playing a good supporting role,” said a Jharkhand coach. Rajiv had represented the country in floor hockey at the 2005 Special Olympics Winter World Games.

The Special Olympics Bharat programme has so far been working with over 36,000 coaches and 65,5234 athletes across 32 state programmes. With India designated a priority nation by Special Olympics International, the aim is to extend the Special Olympics programme across the country and reach over 1,000,000 “special” individuals by 2012-end.