Odisha ropes in Gopichand Foundation for Badminton Academy

The Odisha Government on Friday inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Pullela Gopichand Badminton Foundation to set up a world-class academy in the state.

Gopichand and Sports secretary Sourav Garg signed the MoU in the presence of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik here.

The foundation will provide technical support and overall development of badminton in the state.

The Chief Minister said the state aspires to win Olympic medals in sports and there is no better than Gopichand to help Odisha realising this dream.

He has trained several national and international badminton players who have brought laurels to the country, the Chief Minister said.

The world-class badminton training facility will help groom world-class champions from the state. The state government will provide all possible support to Gopichand and his foundation, the Chief Minister said.

Recalling the success of Asian Athletics Championships, the Chief Minister said it was organised in a period of 90 days where 42 countries and more than 1000 sportspersons participated.

Gopichand said he is immensely pleased to see the kind of support the state government is providing to sports.

The success of Asian Athletics Championships, sponsorship to Indian Hockey team and establishment of high-performance training centre clearly underlines that Odisha is a great state and has a visionary government, he added.

He said the government is making all efforts to bring Odisha in the global sporting map. (IANS)