Kerala has a prominent place in the athletic map of India.  It has been a major and a consistent source of world class athletes whose list range from P.T. Usha to Anju Boby George who became the legends of the Indian athletic history.

Keralites are great admirers and patrons of sports, be it football, volleyball, running, jumping, wrestling etc. Hence all type of sport events conducted here get great support and cheers from the common people. But once in four years kerala state school games is not just an event, it is a national festival of its own kind, it is here where P. T. Usha , Anju, Beena mol and many more were first recognised state wide.

They later went onto capture nationwide recognition and moved onto be one of the best world class athletes India ever made. 

This year, state school games wrestling & athletic championship is also celebrating its golden jubilee - 50 years of consistently churning out the 'best'. The system followed in this event is that the participating schools are grouped under respective districts and these districts compete with each other to win the championship title. This is a matter of pride of the people of each district thus making it a festival for each and every keralite. This year 'Palakad'- the district of oil palms is the one privileged to conduct this mega jubilee event.

The event was inaugurated on 30th November by common education director M. shivashankar by hoisting the championship flag. The events will be conducted on the grounds in and around Palakad town.  A total of 2712 athletes will compete in around 13 events.  A tight competition is expected this year, with Palakad rolling their sleeves to achieve what they have lost between the lips and the cup and Thiruvananthapuram is confident to defend their titles this time also. For the next six days kerala will be on the tip of their heels to see what happens in Palakad.       

As usual the tracks, fields, and pitches to conduct the event are not yet ready. The organisers, education dept & sports dept are working day and night to set things right. The excuse given this time is that the official announcement appointing Palakad as the hosts came only a month in advance leaving only very little time to setup the facilities.

This is just a minor problem. Let us hope the organisers will succeed in getting things right by the time of the event 'as usual’. So its time we cheer up our boys.

- Girish Raghavan for CalicutNet