After unveiling country’s first Indo French dual degree Master’s program in Sports Industry Management of Xavier Emylon Business School (XEBS) at XIMB, Ambassador of France to India, Emmanuel Lenain along with Consul General, Consulate General of France in Calcutta, Virgine Corteval, and officials of XEBS and Sports and Youth Services Department (DSYS), visited the Kalinga Stadium Complex where Special Secretary, Sports and Youth Services, Govt of Odisha, Shri R Vineel Krishna shared the unique initiatives of Odisha that has set it apart from other states.
The French ambassasor took a tour of the High Performance Centres- Odisha Naval Tata Hockey High Performance Centre (HPC) and Abhinav Bindra Targeting Performance Centre (ABTP).
At the Hockey HPC, Ambassador interacted with trainee cadets and took the stick to play a few shots of hockey with the young players who were awe-struck by his presence and elated too to have such a diplomat amongst them on their blue turf. Project Director of the HPC, Rajiv Seth, gave an over view of the thriving Hockey ecosystem in Odisha.
The ambassador also shared a few words of inspiration with the cadets.
Thereafter, at the ABTP Sports Science Centre he had a virtual interaction with Olympian gold medalist, Abhinav Bindra and was demonstrated the bio mechanical assessment and rehabilitation facilities by the head of the centre, Pradeep Pillay.
The tour concluded with Principal Secretary, Sports and Youth Services, Govt of Odisha, Vishal K Dev sharing the journey of sports in Odisha at the core of which lies world class infrastructure development, international sporting events, bouquet of High Performance Centres and grassroot programs.
The ambassador expressed his delight on seeing the facilities at the Stadium.