Govt appoints Oltmans as Indian hockey's High Performance Director

New Delhi: The Government of India will appoint Hockey India's Director High Performance Roelant Oltmans as Chief Coordinator and High Performance Director for Indian Hockey.

He is all set to be appointed till Rio Olympics 2016 keeping in view all the major events taking place in the next three years. This is the first time that the Government of India has engaged an individual in a High Performance role.

Oltmans was firstly hired by Hockey India (HI) as Director High Performance in January this year as part of its plan to further professionalise the sport of hockey.

As High Performance Director, Oltmans will be responsible for ensuring the long term strategy for senior, junior & sub-junior teams. In addition, Oltmans will put in place a professional coaching curriculum and program for the sport.

HI Secretary General Narinder Batra said, "We welcome the initiative taken by the Government of India in engaging Roelant Oltmans as High Performance Director. In the past eight months, Roelant has been working with our coaching and support staff of the Senior and Junior teams to support their efforts to win medals at the Junior Women World Cup, Asia Cup Men & Women, Sultan of Johar Cup and Junior Men World Cup.

"We are confident that this additional support from Government of India will assist us in achieving our objectives and bringing further laurels to the nation," he added.