DIBRUGARH, Dec 24 � A coaching camp is under way here to prepare riders for the 60 km endurance event of the equestrian section of the National Games next year, to be held in Jharkhand. To encourage young riders, the Equestrian Federation of Assam (EFA) has organised a junior endurance ride on Thursday, covering a 20 km track here. The participants were from the Assam Valley School, Balipara and Delhi Public School, Numaligarh.
In the junior endurance event, Mahesh Kumar of Assam Rifles, astride a Fateh was adjudged first, while Miss Suhavi Arya from AVS, Balipara came out second. She was riding a Ginger. The other riders of the meet were, Arunav Phukan astride Speed Motive, Sidhant Kabra astride Spitfire, Sagar Singh Choudhury astride Pawan Putra, Onkar Singh astride Nargis and Sajid Khan astride Riaz.
To develop equestrian sport in the region, the EFA is also conducting an advanced training camp here. The camp trainers are Robert Hutcheson from Australia and Brigadier (Retired) KS Rao. The trainees in this advanced camp are, Sajid Khan from AVS, Balipara, Sagar S Choudhury from DPS, Numaligarh, Jitender Singh, Banamalie Boro and Prafulla Rajuar, all from EFA, and Wakambam R Singh, Hijam P Singh, Salam D Singh and Sarat K Singh, all from the Manipur Equestrian Federation.
According to the EFA secretary general Siddhartha Sharma, a regional centre for equestrain sports for the northeast would be established here, and that work on this has commenced.
After being overshadowed for a long time, the 30-year-old Bopanna came of age reaching a career-high ranking of 13 in the ATP doubles list.
Bopanna won his second ATP World Tour doubles title with Qureshi at Johannesburg in February. Besides, the pair won a couple of prestigious awards � the 2010 �Grand Prix of Peace and Sports� and the �Peace and Sport Image of the Year� Award.
The year also featured some of the most thrilling Davis Cup matches played by India in as long as 89 years of the country taking part in the competition.
What was most heartening was the fact that Paes and Bhupathi�s efforts were well supported by the next-generation stars.
While Lee-Hesh played their part in keeping India�s hopes alive by winning their doubles ties, Somdev and Bopanna stamped their emergence as fine players, helping India consolidate its place in the Davis Cup history by registering a come-from-behind victory.
The 3-2 win over Brazil in the world group play-off in Chennai, after being 0-2 down on the opening day of the tournament, enabled India join the elite club of tennis-playing nations.
