Bhubaneswar, Aug 6 (PTI) The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Women, Children, Sports and Youth Affairs Friday appreciated the efforts of Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in transforming the performance of men's and women's hockey teams of India in the ongoing Tokyo Olympic games.

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The Odisha government became an official sponsor of the national hockey teams, both men and women, in 2018.

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"The Committee in its collective wisdom has appreciated the efforts taken by Shri. Naveen Patnaik, Hon'ble Chief Minister of Odisha, in setting up the High Performance Sports Centres and sponsoring both men's and women's Hockey teams through Hockey India since 2018, which has translated into better performance for both these teams at Tokyo Olympics 2021," the panel said in a statement on the preparation of Olympic games.

The Indian men's hockey team secured an Olympic medal after 41 years, beating a plucky Germany 5-4 to secure the bronze in an edge-of-the-seat play-off match of the ongoing Games in Tokyo on Thursday.

The women's team too had created history and surpassed all expectations by entering the semifinals of the Games for the first time. They, however, lost 3-4 to Great Britain in a hard-fought bronze play-off on Friday.

It is the statutory Parliamentary Committee on the Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs and therefore its views on the chief minister are now a part of the records in Indian Parliamentary for all times to come, a senior Odisha minister said.

The panel headed by Dr Vinay P Sahasrabuddhe appreciated Patnaik in its 327th Report on Action Taken by the Government on the recommendations of the committee on the “Preparation for Olympic Games, 2021” of the Department of Sports, Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports to both the Houses of Parliamentary on Friday.

Apart from getting corporate sponsorship, every state should be encouraged to focus on one sport specific to that region besides taking up other sports in general and create and develop High Performance Sports Centres on the line of the Odisha model, the Committee recommended.

“They (States) should also identify and promote the raw talent from a tender age and provide them with the much needed support of international standards in terms of equipment, sports kit, coaching (team and individual), exposure and mental conditioning in order to nurture them for participation and podium finish at the international level,” it said.

The panel further observed that sponsorship in the field of sports has the potential of providing support for infrastructure development and better performance by sportspersons.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)