The best athletics academies in India

The Indian athletes’ success over the years can be partially credited to the state-of-the-art sports facilities in the country. Indian athletes have excelled at various international competitions including the Olympics, Asian Games and the Commonwealth Games.

Neeraj Chopra’s gold and the Asian record set by the Indian men’s relay team at the Tokyo Olympics is just an affirmation of that. Here’s a list of some of India’s best athletics academies.

Inspire Institute of Sports, Bellary

Spread over 42 acres in Vijayanagar (Karnataka), the Inspire Institute of Sport (IIS) is home to India’s Olympic athletes and is the country’s first privately-funded high-performance training centre. Athletes from five Olympics disciplines including wrestling, boxing, judo, athletics and swimming can avail of international standard infrastructure, coaching and sports science. IIS is home to some budding wrestlers like 2019 junior Asian champion

Praveen Malik and boxers including 2019 Asian bronze medallist Nikhat Zareen.

Army Sports Institute, Pune

Established on July 1, 2001, under the Indian Army’s ‘Mission Olympics programme’, the Army Sports Institute (ASI) Pune has changed the face of sporting culture in the country. It is a high-performance centre for seven Olympic sports including archery, athletics, boxing, diving, wrestling, fencing and weightlifting where athletes are supported by a team of foreign and Indian coaches, physical conditioners, specialists in sports medicine, physiology, psychology, biomechanics, statistics and nutrition.

Mary Kom, Lovlina Borgohain and other Indian boxers trained at ASI Pune before heading to the Tokyo Olympics.

Usha School of Athletics, Kozhikode

Usha School of Athletics in Koyilandy near Kozhikode is the brainchild of Olympian

PT Usha. It is an organisation dedicated to athletics at all possible levels with its state-of-the-art facilities spread across 30 acres. Currently, the school houses girls only, who live and train under the guidance of PT Usha. Legendary hurdler Edwin Moses is also associated with select projects. Middle-distance runners Tintu Luka and Jessy Joseph are the products of the Usha School of Athletics.

Anju Bobby George Sports Foundation, Bengaluru

The Anju Bobby George Sports Foundation is run by former Indian long jumper Anju Bobby George with husband Robert Bobby George as the chief coach. The foundation centres on individualised training and coaching to athletes with world-class facilities, amenities and infrastructure. It identifies talent at the grassroots level as well. The foundation also focuses on women athletes, especially from rural India. Youth under-18 world No. 1 long jumper

Shaili Singh is a byproduct of ABGSF.

Netaji Subhas National Institute of Sports, Patiala

Asia’s largest sports institute, NIS Patiala is the ‘Mecca’ of Indian sport. It has produced coaches that have significantly contributed and assisted in preparing national teams for various international competitions. The institute is spread over 268 acres and has enormous facilities for academic programmes and sports training including a gymnasium, swimming pool, indoor halls, cycling velodrome, squash courts, hockey fields (grass and synthetic), athletic track (cinder and synthetic) and outdoor courts. It regularly hosts national athletics championships as well.

Sports Authority of India, Bengaluru

The Sports Authority of India’s Bengaluru centre is a hub for training ahead of big-ticket international competitions like the Olympics. Over the years, SAI Bengaluru has developed as a centre to prepare high calibre coaches and to enrich their competence and knowledge. SAI Bangalore has both indoor and outdoor facilities including synthetic tracks, hockey turf, swimming pool, tennis clay court, a nine-hole golf course, kabaddi mats and conditioning halls among others. The Tokyo Olympics bronze-winning men’s hockey team and the women’s hockey team were training in a bio-bubble at SAI Bangalore before they left for the Games.