Birmingham experts team up with SAI

With an aim to improve the performance of the Indian athletes, the Sports Authority of India (SAI) has signed a new agreement with the University of Birmingham to develop education programmes to be used by coaches, sport scientists and PE teachers.
There was a record breaking number of Birmingham-educated athletes who were selected for the Olympics to represent England and in the wake of their success at the Rio Games, Indian sports coaches and sports scientists visited the University of Birmingham for a two-week programme.
The programme benefited personnel from a range of sports and science disciplines, including 'India's fastest man' -- 100m national record holder and Olympian Anil Kumar Prakash.

Sports experts at Birmingham will work with SAI partners to identify joint research opportunities and areas of common interest, as well as teaming up to shape sports policy and the development of India's next generation of athletes at all levels.
"SAI is delighted to enter into a memorandum of understanding with the University of Birmingham, which is highly-regarded in the area of sports science," Director General SAI Injeti Srinivas said.
"SAI looks forward to partnering with the University of Birmingham and strengthening its coaching development programme, as well as introducing state-of-the-art scientific support in training, evaluation and preparation of its high performance athletes," he added.

University of Birmingham Pro-Vice-Chancellor (International) Professor Robin Mason said: "The University of Birmingham is proud to team up with the Sports Authority of India. I am delighted that our highly-respected sports experts are working successfully with the very people leading the development of sport in India.
"Birmingham welcomed its first Indian student in 1909 and we now have a great opportunity to build on our long history to create a common sporting future. We can learn much from each other and look forward to developing long and productive partnerships that draw on both Indian and British expertise to help improve the sporting performance both our countries."

The University of Birmingham's School of Sport, Exercise & Rehabilitation Sciences was recently ranked as the best in the UK for Sports Science by The Times/Sunday Times Good University Guide 2017.