Lalitpur, May 12

The National Sports Centre officially opened here at Chyasal from Thursday. The facilities include futsal arena, swimming pool, tennis courts and gymnasium.

President of the National Sports Centre Raju Kaji Shakya said the purpose of opening the facilities was to cater services to the aspiring athletes and help in the development of football from the grassroots level. “I will coach the youth footballer players, while we will hire tennis and swimming coaches in the near future,” said Shakya, who is also the former national team skipper.

“We have started the swimming pool and futsal arena, while the tennis courts and gymnasium are under construction,” said Shakya, the 12th South Asian Games gold medal winning coach. “Hopefully we will complete the construction works by this month,” he added. “We also want to give the message that we can earn our living on our own as the athletes will have nothing to do after retirement.” Shakya is the President of the National Sports Centre, while ANFA Member Dinesh Byanjankar and former goalkeeper Surendra Shrestha along with Rabi Shrestha, Yam Bahadur Khatri and Ramlal Byanjankar are the others board members.

Meanwhile, Nepal Sports Journalists Forum and the National Sports Centre officials played a friendly match to mark the opening of the futsal arena. Nishan Rai scored four goals as NSJF beat NSC 13-5.