'Special Olympics': Sports meet for differently-abled students to be held in Vizag

Hyderabad: Special Olympics, an annual sporting event to foster the sporting talents of differently-abled children, will be organised by Junior Chamber International (JCI) Vizag at the Diamond Jubilee Stadium (Port Trust) in Visakhapatnam on 21 August.

Children with hearing and visual challenges, and physical and mental challenges, from the districts of Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram, and Srikakulam will participate in the event. Registration for all participants is free.

This year, the event will be inaugurated by Anup Kumar Satpathy, the divisional Railway manager, Waltair division. The guest of honour at the inaugural event is M. Sribharat, the president of GITAM University, and the special invitee is Krishnakanth, MD of Ora Motors. The chief guest for the valedictory function is Dr. G. Lakshmisha, GVMC commissioner, and the guest of honour is N. Usha, Dhyan Chand awardee and an international boxer.

Prakash Kochar, the founder of Special Olympics, said, "Although there has been a considerable rise in the number of participants in the event in the past 18 years, there is still a need to foster the talent of these special students. Awareness about the importance of sports needs to be created among trainers and teachers of these special children and they need to be motivated to take part in such activities."

He added, "The rolling shield in the name of my younger brother Prem Kochar who lost his life in an accident is also given every year to the school which has done well in all the categories of events."

Winners in all categories will be given medals and all participants will be given certificates. Differently-abled people who have done well in the field of sports will be felicitated on the occasion. President of JCI Vizag Jc S. Venkatesh and secretary Jc V. Chaitanya said the event will also witness a band salute by the students of Kendra Vidyalaya and a cultural fest by the special students.

In the 17th edition, more than 600 differently-abled students from 30 schools and organisations took part in various events like shot put, discus throw, javelin, running, relay race and softball. The participants were categorised into below 12 years, 12-20 years, and above 21 years for both boys and girls.