LUCKNOW, June 6 -- The state government seems to have now fixed focus on medal-winning sports in the future, getting rid of some "no-results disciplines" from its agenda for a better future of sports in Uttar Pradesh. If sources are to be believed, a few of the 44 sports hostels in as many as 16 disciplines in 18 districts across the state, will be replaced by disciplines like water sports, taekwondo, fencing, wushu and weightlifting, as these hostels in question have produced no results in decades. Currently, the hostels for the disciplines like hockey and athletics have been doing wonders as many Uttar Pradesh sports persons have won medals at the international level in the recent past, including back-to-back bronze medals in the men's hockey at the Olympics by ex-inmate Lalit Kumar Upadhyay. "For the last few years, we have seen plenty of achievements of athletes in water sports, wushu, weightlifting etc, at the national and international levels, but we don't have any hostels for them. If we replace some of our non-performing hostels with the hostels of these, Uttar Pradesh can be a big dominant force in sports in future," said a senior official, preferring anonymity. "The idea behind such a move to start new hostels for medal-winning disciplines in place of some performing disciplines is justified as we are spending almost Rs 1.5 lakh taxpayers' money per inmate for 890, including 220 girl athletes per year and that without any result," he said, adding, "If we spend this money on medal-winning prospects, we can finish top at the National Games and can produce international stars too." Certainly, his words sound very positive as in the recently concluded National Games at Uttarakhand, wushu exponents of Uttar Pradesh were the biggest gainers for the state with nine medals, including four gold, two silver and three bronzes. This wasn't all as they also won 17 medals, including two golds at the sub-junior nationals recently. "We have made repeated requests for the start of the hostel for wushu exponents too in Uttar Pradesh and I am sure if we have it, we will finish much better at the National Games and will be able to produce international stars too," Uttar Pradesh Wushu Association secretary, Manish Kakkar said on Thursday. "It's a very good of the state government to plan the start of hostels of medal-winning disciplines for the future,' said Kakkar, adding, "India has a strong presence at the Asian Games, as in 2023, it had nine medals, including one silver and eight bronzes at Hangzhou." Many feel that there has to be a drastic cut in the number of cricket as well as football hostels as all eight hostels, including five in cricket, haven't produced even a single player for the state teams for the last many years. For the record, the then government-run cricket hostel in Gomti Nagar Stadium in Lucknow was the last one to see two of its wards Suresh Raina and Rudra Pratap Singh making their debuts for India in ODIs against Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe in 2005. But since then, hardly anyone from the existing cricket hostels at Fatehpur, Mainpuri, Meerut, Kanpur and Deoria, have been able to make it to even the junior India side. "Now, these cricket hostels lack quality cricketers. We know how the selection of boys is being done in these hostels through various wrong means from the backdoor, and none of them are good enough even for the junior sides of the state cricket," senior coach of a cricket hostel said on condition of anonymity on Wednesday. "In fact, our hostels have become health centres from where we are not producing sports persons, but aspirants for various government jobs in defence, police etc., as in my 15 years career I haven't seen anyone seriously trying to become a big sportsperson in future," he said, adding, "It's not that they lack facilities or motivation, but they are focused on getting jobs only through sports." However, a top sports official in the state government said that a review of performance of inmates at the existing hostels should be done as most of these facilities are outdated and haven't been able to produce the desired results. "We should be focused on medal-winning disciplines, and I feel that athletes are taking their admission to these hostels for granted and enjoying food and stay without aiming for achievements," he said....