Grooming the unseen and unsighted future Champions: Nayal
A bunch of blind students from Model School for the Visually Handicapped (MSVH), National Institute for the Empowerment of Persons with Visual Disabilities-Divyangjan(NIEPVD) Dehradun, Uttarakhand took a different route to design their life. With their studies, they took sports seriously with the entry of their Sports Teacher Naresh Singh Nayal in 2015. As a qualified Coach from SAI East Centre Kolkata, he held their hands to guide and train them systematically and scientifically. Though it was not easy for him in the beginning but he was supported by the determination and zeal to learn the attitude of the blind students. So the journey started with the trust-winning game first. The blind students tried to judge their Sports Teacher by touch and witty cross-questions.
Now not only in Blind Football but with the good performances in Nagesh Trophy Sovendra Singh Bhandari (B1 Category) got selected in Indian Blind Cricket Team for the India-Nepal series of ODI’s and T20s in 2019. The celebrations were on and in the month of February Gambhir Singh Chauhan (B3 Category) got the news of his selection in Indian Blind Cricket Team from CABI(Cricket Association of Blind in India). The students were getting a choice of game and were inspired by their friends and seniors only.
The running took boom with the medals won by Blind boys and girls of the Institute in National Sports Meet for the Blinds by Indian Blind Sports Association (IBSA)at Delhi in 2018. Raveena Sharma(T-12) won three gold medals in her category and Neeraj Chauhan (T-13)took all the challenges in middle and long-distance events and won two gold and one silver medal. Now they also take part in road races along with their sighted runners to give them a good fight. Many of them have won podium finishes which encouraged others too.
Saurabh Sharma and Deepak Rawat are the names among boys and Sneha Domuga and Tara Patwa are popular and followed by their juniors in school and other places too. Sports has become a culture in the Institute now, which was the dream of Sports Teacher Naresh Singh Nayal. With these achievements, the Institute has also started supporting its dreams. As they want to be in the Indian team in many sports and represent India in the Paralympics. But still, a long way to go for these Blind students and their Coaches.
If we take as some of the highlights are as under
produced 6 International Blind Footballers
2 International Blind Cricketers
Coached Uttarakhand Blind Cricket team from 23 ranked to Quarter Final in 4th Edition of Nagesh Trophy in 2021.
More than 30 National medals in Para Athletics in different events.
Prepared training manuals of Blind Football.
Wrote 3 lessons on Para Sports which are included in the course of Special B.Ed.(Visually Impaired) of Uttarakhand Open University.
Took Visually Impaired runners to run Half Marathons and other road races.
Prepared Uttarakhand Blind Women Cricket and Football Teams.
Coach of Sovendra Bhandari(Totally Blind Player) who has represented India in Blind Football and Blind Cricket too.
Coach of Shivam Singh Negi (International Blind Footballer) who became the first Indian Blind Footballer to score goals in the Asian Blind Football Championship. It happened in Pattaya, Thailand in the year 2019.
Certified Master Trainer from Indian Blind Football Federation (IBFF) for the trainers of Blind Football.
Assistant Coach of Indian Blind Football Team.
