“A sound mind in a sound body” is a well-known saying. To keep healthy, one must take an active interest in sports. Thus, sports serve an essential purpose in life because they ensure good health and build physical as well as mental strength. Thus, SFA came into being to revolutionize the landscape of school sports in Mumbai & eventually India by providing a robust, sustainable ecosystem for school children to participate, compete & grow in the field of sport. The judo tournaments for students got a positive response with hundreds of students from all of Mumbai, Thane and its suburbs participated for the judo inter-school championship. It was a historic day for Mumbai and Indian sports as almost 3000 school kids from more than 125 schools in the city of Mumbai and New Mumbai were present on the opening day of the inaugural Sports For All (SFA)-India’s Premier Inter-School Sporting System. It commenced at the D. Y. Patil Sports Stadium, Nerul on 24th December 2015. A colourful ceremony marked the opening of the games and after the children sang the National Anthem, the Games were declared opened. After some warm-up sessions the children were seen participating in the seven Olympic sports like judo tournaments, tennis, badminton, squash, handball, volleyball and basketball, all being conducted simultaneously. The participants were provided with the state of the art infrastructure at the D. Y. Patil sports complex with each and every game being handled proficiently by professional sporting bodies like the MSLTA and MBA. The judo competitions for students were under the aegis of Bombay Judo Club. SFA, founded by Rishikesh Joshi, aims at creating a platform for school students across Mumbai to participate and compete in multiple sports. They conducted an Inter-School Sporting event which was held at the D. Y. Patil Sports Stadium, Nerul and they made it a system in itself called India's Premier Inter-School Sporting System. The judo inter-school championship had students from all over Mumbai and Thane suburb schools participating and competing. SFA is a platform for school children to participate and compete in multiple sports. The education that is imparted in our schools and colleges is mainly intellectual. It is true that every school and college has a playground and offers facilities for sports. But participation in games is not compulsory and little account is taken of it while awarding certificates and degrees. Our educationists should realise the organic connection between mind and body, and pay more attention and importance to the physical training of the young. The inter school sports competition was held in the month of December 2015 from 24th to 31st. The judo competitions for students were under the aegis of Bombay Judo Club. SFA ensures that the school children get adequate exposure to multiple sports like squash, judo tournaments, badminton, basketball, etc. even if he/she is not participating in the sports competitions since most of the schools in Mumbai don’t have facilities for every sporting event. SFA gave them a platform to showcase their sporting abilities in front of 500 schools, thus making it the worlds’ biggest inter school sports competition. SFA is a platform for 500 schools to show their talents in one of the biggest multi-sports arena which was the D. Y. Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai, where judo tournaments for students were held. The D. Y. Patil Stadium, which was the venue for SFA, was founded by Vijay Patil who embarked on an ambitious project to build a sports academy not just for the love of cricket, but also other sports. The D. Y. Patil Sports Academy has several world-class sporting facilities like: 3 Badminton Courts, 6 Table Tennis Tables, 1 Handball Court, 1 Basketball Court, 1 Football Arena, 4 Tennis Courts, 3 Squash Courts, 1 Volleyball Court, 1 Olympic size Swimming Pool and 1 Judo Arena for judo inter-school championship. The judo competitions for students were under the aegis of Bombay Judo Club. The SFA inter-school-cum-educational programme conducted nine sports disciplines – Badminton, Basketball, Handball, Judo tournaments, Tennis, Squash championship, Swimming, Table Tennis and Volleyball in association with Mahesh Bhupathi Academy and other state federations. The judo tournaments for students were organised in various age categories with access to yoga, meditation and mental training sessions along with their parents.
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