City men to showcase footvolley skills in Rio

Two men from Mumbai have been selected to go to Rio Olympics to further India’s chances of winning medals. However, the medals are not expected in this edition; rather the current endevour has been undertaken keeping the next Olympics in mind.

The two men will represent India at Rio Olympics during the exhibition tourney of footvolley, a relatively new sport that the Olympic committee plans to introduce in its next edition in 2020 at Tokyo, Japan. The players Kajetan Dias (26) and Kundan Chandra (44) are part of a three-member team that includes Jashandeep Singh Sidhu (20) from Barnala who were selected to participate in the exhibition tournament that will have teams from 24 countries showcasing the game between August 24 and 29.

Both Mr Chandra and Mr Dias said that they got into the sport as they played football and were fascinated by the game that restricted the use of hands but allowed the use of feet and other parts of the body. Both the players have played at the national level in Santosh Trophy.

“We had known about the game of footvolley and started representing the game through Dias United Sports Club. Through the district representation, we came for a state-level selection and then further represented Maharashtra team and got the gold medal in national competition of footvolley,” said Mr Chandra, the senior of the two and a resident of Vasai.

Mr Dias on the other hand, a resident of Dadar, has had phenomenal success and bagged the gold medal for three consecutive years at the national championship hosted by Foot Volley Association of India (FVAI). “Having a great experienced partner in Chandra made the task much easier. I would like to thank my mentor Iqbal Shaikh for proper guidance and my parents for rendering support and above all, the Dias United Sports Club for making it possible for me to reach this far,” said Mr Dias.

Both the players said it was a great honour for them to be selected to represent India at the Rio exhibition games to be held at the official beach stadium of the Olympic Games of Copacabana Beach. Both Mr Dias and Mr Chandra have been training alongwith Mr Sidhu in Mumbai for the past week and will depart for Rio on Monday.