Chennai, Dec 20: The Indian Federation of Sports Gaming (IFSG), India’s first sports gaming industry body, launched its athlete support programme, ‘Stars of Tomorrow’ (SOT), with an aim to identify and
support India’s future sporting talent in diverse set non-mainstream sports such as Sailing, Squash, Tennis, Swimming and Golf to name a few.
Through a rigorous selection process led by GoSports, the ‘Implementation Partner’ of this initiative, 13 talented athletes have been selected from amongst 168 entries to be a part of IFSG’s Stars of Tomorrow programme. The programme has been created with an aim to identify and support India’s future sporting talent in diverse set non-mainstream sports.
In this programme, Chennai’s sailor Nethra Kumanan, was one of the 13 chosen athletes who was felicitated the certificate of ‘Stars of Tomorrow’, by Boxing legend Mary Kom.
Nethra started her sailing journey at a summer camp that was organized by Tamil Nadu Sailing Association. In 2013, she started training professionally and later qualified for 2014 and 2018 Asian Games.
All the chosen athletes of the programme will be offered critical support towards the fulfilment of their sporting goals. Launching the Stars of Tomorrow programme, John Loffhagen, President, IFSG, said that IFSG was inspired by the Indian Sports Ministry’s efforts in building India as a great sporting nation and wanted to facilitate and contribute towards the cause.
Being a part of the sports ecosystem, they felt it is their responsibility to enable the overall growth of sports and provide specific support to deserving athletes at an individual level.
Dream11 Foundation, the primary contributor to this programme, has pledged Rs.3 crores to support IFSG’s cause.
Felicitating the athletes at the event, Mary Kom, 6-time World Amateur Boxing Champion, said. “I am happy to be associated with IFSG’s initiative as I feel that for India to truly become a sporting nation and be seen as a strong contender in the international arena, support needs to be given not only for team sports but also to individual sports. IFSG’s Stars of Tomorrow is another welcome step towards achieving national goals.”