Run To The Peaks: RCB’s ‘Made Of Bold’ Initiative Looks To Unearth Sprint Talent In Uttara Karnataka
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Talent identification and preparation are some of the milestones that need to be scaled in the long road to success in building a sporting ecosystem and RCB looks to bridge the gap between dreams and reality with their foray into nurturing sporting ability abundant on…Read More
Akshay Siddi (left) hopes to breach the 11-second mark in the 100m dash. (Image: News18)
“I believe God made me for a purpose, but He also made me fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure.” – Chariots Of Fire
Tucked away in the hinterland of Karnataka, nearly an hour’s drive from the airport at Hubbali, is the dainty little town of Mundgod- a harbour for ethnic descendants of Southeast African Bantus.
The origin stories of the community trace their ancestry back to the forced movement of the African people to the peninsular nation under the aegis of Portuguese mercantile elements during their foray into India.
This little town, which does leave a lot to the imagination in terms of public infrastructure and commercial exposure, provides an abode to a group of aspiring athletes, from the Siddi and Gowli communities among others, who find joy in the art of running.
Roads with cattle wandering cross-town and school kids flocking about to their educational institutions in their routine of daily hustle predominate the days. Grounds that harbour just the most stubborn patches of grass formed in varied motifs remain and an overall zeitgeist of ‘Ye Old India rural’ emanates clean and bright.
And yet sport reaches where urban planning doesn’t!
Sport has the ability to provide a pathway out of multiple issues that have plunged the nation since independence, including the vice of inequality at various levels. And the antidote found in the annals of sporting disciplines and culture has the potential to lift the veil of imbalance and disproportion caused by years of deprivation.
Indian Premier League side and a certified mainstay in the realms of the country’s cricketing ecosystem, Royal Challengers Bengaluru, opted to pick out this particular community hidden away in obscurity amid all the bustle of day-to-day life to launch their ‘Made of Bold’ Sports Development Program, which aims to leverage the unifying power of sport to promote inclusivity and community development.
RCB have come to be one of the most widely followed sporting entities in the game India cherishes as spiritually its own, credit to the oozing passion and religious fervour with which the Red-faithful hold the insignia of the franchise.
Despite a lack of silverware, the craze for the Golden-crowned Lion reverberates through regions of the globe that celebrate cricket and an initiative by the much-beloved side from Karnataka’s capital city to unearth and nurture talent from corners hitherto unexplored is appreciable as RCB looks to diversify their portfolio by inculcating a wider spectrum of disciplines.
The Made of Bold, a nod to RCB’s ethos of ‘Play Bold’, is a program developed in unison with not-for-profit organisations such as GoSports Foundation and Bridges of Sports Foundation as the stakeholders involved aspire to offer support, in terms of education, training and nutrition for yearning sprinters in a comprehensive manner providing boarding in the form of hostels filled with dreams, ambition and a whole lot of motivational murals that only young hungry minds could come up with.
RCB’s Sports Development initiative promises to provide support to 25 junior athletes training under the Bridges of Sports Foundation.
The programme looks to get the ball rolling by initially engaging over 400 children in a dynamic 2-tier league, with the best performing 25 athletes receiving comprehensive training through training sessions aimed at preparing them for state and national level competitions.
And in a manner of sweetening the deal, two of the top athletes are promised to benefit from advanced training under marked coaches and therapists with a track record of having worked with Olympic medalists.
The talent is spread across ages with certain athletes idolising the legendary Jamaican sprint superstar Usain Bolt, while others liken themselves to the more nascent sensation, Noah Lyles.
While the Mundgod population seeks to establish their locality as the nation’s sprint capital, RCB seeks to provide direction and support for a sprinting culture that lies in wait, primed to be cultivated.
Akshay Siddi, a talented teenage sprinter from the Uttara Kannada suburb, provided an insight into the ground-level workings of the program that promises a bright future.
The 18-year-old Siddi, who has his eyes set on breaching the 11-second mark in the 100m dash opened up on his journey into the world of sprinting.
“Initially, I wasn’t much into running, I was rather into other sports including Kabaddi and Kho-kho but my foray into track and field started when Mallan Goud sir came to our town to scout,” Siddi said.
“My 100m timing is 11.15, I hope to breach the 11-second mark ahead of January trials to enable me to compete in an event in the United Kingdom,” he added.
“I’m the youngest kid in the family. My sister is a nurse in Mysore and my brother is a water rafter. My parents are farmers in my hometown of Maynalli,” he added.
He has been part of the boarding system in Mundgod for over half a decade, on and off, and went on to explain the healthy competition prevalent in the area between the multiple communities that call Mundgod their home.
“There’s the Gowli community too for instance in and around this area, who have quality athletes competing for the prizes during events,” he explained shedding some light on the zeitgeist that adds to the small-town charm.
A trip to one of the many areas left vastly untouched by the exponential growth in technology and gentrification fills one with the knowledge of serenity in the simplicity of life, but also prods questions pertaining to the magnitude and scale of lives left untouched by the developments visible in prominent cities across the globe and how much more those in a position of power to shed light on the areas left largely unbothered.
Talent identification and preparation are some of the milestones that need to be scaled in the long road to success and RCB looks to bridge the gap between dreams and reality with their foray into nurturing sporting ability abundant on the mud-ridden running tracks nestled deep in Karnataka’s Mundgod.
However, the optimism of the hearts does lead one to the stream of a belief that the Royal Challengers of Bengaluru have tapped into an area with plenty of promise if channelled in the right spirit.
