Karmakar working for sporting awareness

KOLKATA: There are sportspersons who play hard and then retire, treating their sporting career as just another phase in their lives. Then there are those who try to give something back to the sport by taking up coaching assignments. But there are very few sportspersons who, even in their playing days, work to raise awareness about their field of specialization but about all sports in general.
Olympian and Arjuna award-winner Joydeep Karmakar falls in the third category. Every Saturday, from now on, he will reach the FM listeners with a sports programme called "SHOOT OUT".
"When I decided to do this, I didn’t want to present a regular sports magazine," Karmakar told TOI on Saturday. "I wanted to do something that only a sportsperson can do. So I tried to come up with a different kind of content."
Being the first-of-its-kind effort in India by an international sportsman, listeners will get to learn rules and regulations of less popular sports like polo as well as that of some little-known sports played in different parts of the world.
"I'll also host sportspersons. After all, who can understand a sportsperson better than a peer," said Karmakar.
Another interesting segment of the programme will be the story of sportspersons in first person. "Here I won't just present stories of famous people. There are sportspersons who we have forgotten but who had inspiring stories to tell. I'll try to bring them back into focus," said the man who missed an Olympic medal by a whisker in London last year, coming fourth in 50m rifle prone shooting.