Davender preparing athelets for India

Saryu Mahajan / CNN-IBN
TimePublished on Wed, Mar 11, 2009 at 15:43, Updated on Wed, Mar 11, 2009 at 15:57 in India section
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Dera Baba Nanak (Punjab): This marathon man makes sure that the kids of his small village in Punjab - Dera Baba Nanak - take their sports seriously.
Davinder Singh, a former Army jawan and police constable, set up the Bhagat Singh Academy of Athletics and Boxing nine years ago.

“Kids should be trained from childhood. I used to come during vacation and train the kids here,” says Davinder.

The sports ground in Dera Baba Nanak used to be overrun with the vehicles of the villagers. There was no pucca road leading to the ground.
That is when Davinder along with the kids started leveling the mud track shaming the local authorities into joining hands and making a pucca road.
And even as he weeded out the shrubs, Davinder started planting trees to fence the area.

With the ground ready Davinder started calling the kids out to try their hand at all forms of athletic sports. But his first hurdle was reluctant parents.
“Parents were reluctant in the beginning,” says Davinder.
Nine-year-old Simran came to Davinder two years ago with little self confidence. And, today she has qualified for the State Championship for 400 meters race. The little champion, like all others here swears by her coach

“He is like my father,” says Simran.

All the kids in the village call Davinder paaji (father) out of love.
The academy has produced nine state champions and four national champions. Today there are more than 100 kids trained by Davinder.
“My aim is to send the boys to Olympics,” says Davinder.