Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government after showing its guts in hosting the Asian Athletics Championship is looking forward to set up a high-performance sports academy in the state with an aim to produce world class athletes. The state government Thursday signed an EoI(expression of interest) with the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) and Athletics Federation of India (AFI) to set up the Odisha-AFI-IAAF High Performance Academy  in Bhubaneswar.Odisha

The state sports and youth affairs secretary Vishal Kumar Dev  for the state government while IAAF presdient Lord Sebastian and AFI president Adille Sumariwala  for the sports bodies signed the EoI papers  in the presence of the chief minister,Naveen Patnaik, and sports minister, Chandra Sarathi Behera.

While the AFI will manage the academy, the  state sports and youth services department will provide the funds and necessary infrastructures besides support services. The IAAF will bring in specialists and built the capacity of the coaches.