GAIL hunts for the next Milkha to identify and develop Olympic level sprinters

Legendary athlete ‘Padmashree’ Milkha Singh, himself, is the mentor of the talent hunt, which will identify, groom and develop champions keeping in mind 2020 Tokyo Olympics and herald a new era in the Indian Athletics.

The talent hunt is aimed at finding next Milkha of India and will be conducted across 19 cities reaching over 3,000 schools in the age group of 12 to 14 years. The event is spread into finding best talents in 100 metre, 200 metre and 400 metre race for both, boys and girls.

Winners from their respective cities would be competing to become “GAIL:The Fastest Indian” on December 14, 2014 at Bengaluru in the finals, where one boy and one girl from each category will be selected.

GAIL (India) Limited, India’s No. 1 Natural Gas company and a Maharatna PSU, is the principal partner of the event being organized by Spoment, a global sports, media and entertainment company.

Winners of the finals of “GAIL:The Fastest Indian” would be trained by renowned national and international sports trainers, where they would get specialized training needed to compete at the international events. The winners will also be given complete scholarship up till their post-graduation so that their focus would continue to remain on medal winning and not have to ne worry about the future.

Speaking on the occasion, ‘The Flying Sikh’ Shri Milkha Singh said, “I am very happy that GAIL and Spoment have taken this initiative. This project is the need of the hour. It will help find many more Milkha’s from the length and breadth of this country.”

GAIL’s Director (HR)  Shri M. Ravindran  said, “GAIL is a brand associated with energy, youthfulness and growth. The company’s lean and nimble workforce has worked hard to make it the country’s fastest growing Maharatna company in 30 short years. Association with the search for the fastest Indian thus comes naturally for GAIL. Athletics as a sport is a true test of human endurance, redefining the limits we set on ourselves. We are sure that a country of a billion plus has a lot of extraordinary talent that is untapped. What is required is a little help and little faith. We hope to be that help.”

According to Shri Darshan M, Director, Spoment, “GAIL-The Fastest Indian is much more than a talent hunt, it’s a dream for Indian sports. It is an ambitious attempt to discover, groom and develop an Indian Olympic level athlete. The project would achieve its goal even if few of the kids from this search go on to represent India at the international sports arena.”

While the first edition of “GAIL-The Fastest Indian” will cover 19 cities, it will be expanded over time to reach all 800 districts of the country, thus becoming the world’s largest ever athletics talent competition. The organizers have tied up with the School Games Federation of India to popularize the event and ensure participation by the maximum number of talented children.

The other partners who are making this dream possible include IFIM Business School which is providing scholarships, Manipal Hospitals, Sports Keeda, Chroma, Fox Mandal, ICONGO, rightticket.in, CII YI and UNIBIC.