'This is unbelievable phase for Indian sports'

Athletes lauded for their performances on National Sports Day

Sports Minister Anurag Thakur on Tuesday complimented Indian athletes on the National Sports Day, lauding their recent performances at the global level.

The National Sports Day is celebrated every year on this date to mark the birth anniversary of hockey wizard Major Dhyan Chand, who won three gold medals for India at the Olympics.

On the occasion, the National Sports Federations (NSF) portal was also launched for ensuring ease of business and good governance".

It is a unified online portal which will become a single window for processing annual renewals and elections in national sports federations.

Several athletes including the legendary women's boxer MC Mary Kom, former long jumper Anju Bobby George and members of the men's 4x400m relay team, which finished fifth at the recently concluded World Championships, among other, were present at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium to celebrate the day.

"This is an unbelievable phase for Indian sports. In 60 years, there were only 18 medals at the World University Games (in Chengdu, China). This year itself, we won 26 medals in the tournament," said Thakur.

"Not only that, across all sports, be it R. Praggnanandhaa in chess to Antim Panghal in wrestling and Aditi Gopichand Swami in archery, we are getting phenomenal results."