Delighted with the Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puraskar, the Lakshya Institute has set its target high, and has vowed to help athletes win Olympic medals.
After being set up in 2010 to nurture budding talent to achieve sporting excellence, Lakshya has supported more than a 100 players across nine disciplines, and helped them win 238 international and 445 national medals, spending about 13 crore rupees on them.
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It supported 12 athletes in representing the country, spread over the last two Olympics in London and Rio.
"With the award comes the responsibility. Our aim is to help as many athletes as we can. With the pandemic, the financial situation of the corporate world will be down. Challenge is to sustain through this period and not let our players down," said Sunder Iyer, the secretary of the Lakshya Institute.
At the moment, Lakshya supports 40 players across eight disciplines. Boxers Pooja Rani and Simranjit Kaur have qualified for the Tokyo Olympics. It has seven more hopefuls eyeing Tokyo berths.
Sharath Kamal, Rutuja Bhosale, Vidit Gujrathi, Sonia Lather, Sunil Kumar and Swapnil Kusale are some of the leading players supported by Lakshya. Top shooters like Rahi Sarnobat and Anjum Moudgil had also enjoyed the support of the Institute.
"The focus last decade was to ensure many players represented the country in the Olympics. The focus for the next decade will be on how players can start winning more medals for India in the Olympics," said Sunder.
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Lakshya has utilised the services of 19 mentors, 28 sports science experts in guiding the players to realise their potential.
The president of Lakshya, Vishal Chordia received the award in Pune, on the National Sports Day. On the momentous occasion, the team of Lakshya remembered to thank the numerous sponsors from the corporate world who had extended invaluable support in sustaining the dreams of the athletes.
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