Opening Doorz

By Our Sports Correspondent | Opening Doorz Editorial | October 17, 2017

Based on their research, analysis and experience over the last two Olympic cycles, Olympic Gold Quest (OGC) has understood that foreign coaches bring in invaluable knowledge on the techniques, strategies and training methods used by top athletes worldwide which is important to implement in training of the athletes at OGC. Keeping this in mind (as they prepare for the Olympic Games), OGQ has appointed seven world class foreign coaches who are training about 80 junior and senior athletes (more than 50 per cent of athletes supported by OGQ) in India and abroad.

Charles Atkinson
Boxing
English coach Charles Atkinson, who was instrumental in the training and success of 2012 London Olympics bronze medalist MC Mary Kom since 2009, has been brought down to India for the third time in the last eight months to train junior and senior boxers supported by OGQ for 15-day camps at Army Sports Institute (Pune), Mary Kom Boxing Academy (Imphal) and Sarita Regional Boxing Academy (Imphal) each.

Kim Hagyong
Archery
South Korea’s Kim Hagyong, former chief coach of Colombia and Hong Kong, was appointed by OGQ to train six junior archers at SAI Rothak. Impressed by his performance, SAI appointed him as chief coach of Indian junior archery team which eventually won two medals at the Youth World Championships 2017 in Argentina.

Vladimer Mestvirishvili
Wrestling
The highly knowledgable and experienced Georgian was the coach of Indian wrestling team for 13 years and has trained Olympic medallists Sushil Kumar and Yogeshwar Dutt. He has been brought to India for the next three years to train wrestlers supported by OGQ at Chhatrasal Stadium, New Delhi, to prepare them for Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Kim Seonil, Munkhbayar Dorjsuren, Lazslo Scuzak and Anton Belak
Shooting
Kim Seonil, an Olympian and former chief coach of the South Korean national team is training four pistol shooters in Balewadi, Pune, full time until the 2020 Olympic Games. Additionally, Munkhbayar Dorjsuren, a seven time Olympian and two time medalist in pistol shooting coached Olympians Heena Sidhu and Rahi Sarnobat in a four-week camp in Pune. Rifle shooters Ayonika Paul and Lajja Gauswami were sent to Hungary for multiple training camps under former Indian team coach Lazslo Scuza. Finally, Anton Belak, former coach of national teams in Switzerland and Kazakhstan has been appointed as the Chief rifle coach for Project Leap and is training 11 young rifle shooters in Pune.

These foreign coaches are also sharing their knowledge with Indian coaches which helps upgrade their skills and understanding of latest training methods.

Also Read: OGC joins hands with Project Leap