Athletics
Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju sanctions Rs 5 crore to Anju Bobby George's Academy
The funding by the Sports Ministry has come to the aid of the World Championship bronze medallist at a time when she was running from pillar to post in order to find ways to generate revenue and funds for her academy.
The Union Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju has sanctioned Rs 5 crore to track athlete Anju Bobby George to develop the former star’s Athletics Academy based in the city of Bengaluru. The funding by the Sports Ministry has come to the aid of the World Championship bronze medallist at a time when she was running from pillar to post in order to find ways to generate revenue and funds for her academy.
The Sports Ministry Kiren Rijiju tweeted:
"Happy to meet Anju Bobby George, the first-ever and the only Indian to win a World Athletics Championships medal (long jump bronze medal) at Paris in 2003. Today, sanctioned Rs 5 crore for her athletics academy at Bengaluru."
Anju George hogged the limelight in 2003 after she leapt 6.70m in the long jump event at the World Athletics Championship, adding a bronze medal to her name and becoming the first Indian to ever stand on a podium at that event. Inaugurated by legend Mike Powell in May 2016, her academy in Bengaluru is run by the Anju Bobby Sports Foundation. Speaking to the TOI from Delhi, Anju elucidated, “The academy has been planned on a five-acre plot of land which has been leased to us. Currently, we are training five athletes and as a first step, we will soon start 10 athletes. Once the facility is ready, we aim to take 30 athletes and train them.”
