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Inter-IIT

Athletes share their experiences of Inter-IIT Sports Meet

Athletes share their experiences of Inter-IIT Sports Meet
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By

Md Imtiaz

Published: 11 Dec 2019 12:23 PM GMT

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur is ready to host the 54th edition of the Inter IIT Sports Meet from 14 December 2019. The nine-day sports meet, which will be held across IIT Kharagpur and IIT Bhubaneswar campuses, will see over 3,500 students participating from all the 23 IITs across the country. It will see students of the institutions participating across 12 different sports and games — athletics, badminton, basketball, chess, cricket, football, hockey, lawn tennis, squash, table tennis, volleyball and weightlifting. 

The Inter-IIT Sports Meet holds a 58-year-old rich legacy being the largest Inter-College tournament in India which dates back to 1961. Since then, the meet is being held every year in December, with the Aquatics events preceding in the month of October. With only five IITs existing back then, the first Meet was held at IIT Bombay, that saw IIT Madras, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Kanpur and IIT Delhi and the hosts participating in five sports. IIT Kharagpur emerged as the champions of the maiden edition. Since then, the meet is being carried out uninterruptedly, except on three occasions.

Romil Barthwal
Romil Barthwal, who is an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur, is a software engineer by profession, but one can find him running the longest distance run happening around him.

Romil Barthwal, who is an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur, is a software engineer by profession, but one can find him running the longest distance run happening around him. The 43-year-old long-distance runner also takes a keen interest in trekking, mountaineering expeditions, cycling, rafting, travelling among other things. In fact, he recently achieved the highest frontier of mountaineering — Mount Everest, scaling the Himalayan heights along with his 14-member team earlier this year. In a conversation with The Bridge, Romil shared his expectations and hopes around the Inter-IIT sports meet. 

"The Inter IIT is the best platform to showcase your talent. Sports are an important aspect for mental well being and easiest way to de-stress. Indian sports, unfortunately, doesn’t focus much on University level competitions and thus unlike foreign universities real talent doesn’t emerge from college sports so the onus lies on us to make the change and get the best talent to reach higher levels," says Romil. He believes that a sportsperson makes a distinct place for himself or herself in an educational institute. He goes on to add, "To all the players and students I would wish all the best. Keep the sporting spirit alive. Get engaged in sports at all levels and raise the bar every time you do that. In a healthy body resides a healthy mind. Having a sportsman mindset will stand you apart from others. All the best and rock the event."

Nitesh Kumar
Nitesh, whose interest towards badminton only picked up during his IIT days had been part of three Inter-IIT Sports Meet

An IIT Mandi graduate, Nitesh Kumar, is one of the most popular names who has made a mark in world sporting arena, a renewed perspective towards the sport. The 23-year-old is the world no. 10 singles men’s para-shuttler and also a bronze medal winner at the 2018 Asian Para Games. Nitesh, whose interest towards badminton only picked up during his IIT days had been part of three Inter-IIT Sports Meet. "During the meet in 2016 at IIT Kanpur, IIT Mandi men's badminton team qualified for quarterfinal for the first time, though we had a better team in 2015. We were lagging to IIT Hyderabad by 2-0 and then we won it by 5-2. The team had expectations from my international experience, and it felt good to contribute to the win, that too at a non-para tournament," he says while talking about the fondest memory of the meet. 

"The competition is too intense. People don't expect such intensity among college students in sports. Every year, the competition gets tougher and players push themselves to achieve their best. It's an amazing feeling to represent your institution. I hope all the participants keep up the good spirit of the game, play clean, and set the bars high for next sports meet," adds Nitesh.

Manav Singh Raghav from IIT Kharagpur athletics team is redefining boundaries of IITians. He has secured a silver medal at 31st East Zonal Junior National Athletics championship-2019 in the event of High Jump. With a clearance of 1.96m, he has already broken the Inter-IIT record which stands 1.90m in this event. He is geared up and expecting some more laurels at the Inter-IIT Meet. "We have been working very hard to improve our performance at this year's meet and since we are the hosts, the expectation will be higher. I hope it is going to be a good competition. I also participated in last year's meet. It was an all-over different experience seeing so many competing. I have seen participants giving their everything to emerge victoriously. I am keeping myself calm cool so that I can give my best at this year's meet," asserts Manav.

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