CHENNAI
‘Shuttle by Dalmi Bharat’ – a badminton High Performance Centre (HPC) in Bhubaneswar – is set to start soon, more than three months after it was inaugurated at the Kalinga Stadium complex.
The HPC is the result of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which was signed between the Dalmia Group, the Pullela Gopi Chand Badminton Academy, and the Government of Odisha five years ago. The centre was opened last December.
“We will be starting next month and we will have trials for the selection,” Gopi Chand confirmed to Sportstar on Tuesday.
It is understood that discussions over the selection process could have possibly resulted in the delay, but around 50 students (the centre has lodging facilities for these many players) will soon get a chance to train on the eight courts inside the ‘Shuttle’.
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“We’ll be looking at the age group of around 10-14. Depending on the talent, we might go up or down,” the India national coach revealed about the selection trials.
“It’s just not a beautiful building, but an aspiration for a lot of youngsters, to thousands across the country. It’s a symbol of the badminton court and the shuttlecock that will help build champions,” Gopi Chand had said during the opening ceremony of the HPC.
The seven-storey, eco-friendly (made of low-carbon cement and has rainwater harvesting for recharging groundwater) building also has a seating arena around the eight courts which can accommodate about 400 people, according to those associated with the project.
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