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New Delhi, Feb 20 (IANS) The Cycling Federation of India (CFI) is confident of setting up a professional academy in collaboration with world body Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) by the end of 2013. If things go as planned, India will be the first country to have a UCI training facility in south and south-east Asia. "Our talks for an academy date back to last year's World Championship and things are progressing towards having an academy in India. It will be a great boost for Indian cycling as it will attract participants from other countries. UCI will also be providing world class coaches to us," CFI president Parminder Singh Dhindsa told IANS Wednesday, ahead of the 33rd Asian Cycling Championships to be held here March 7-17. The chosen venue is expectedly the velodrome at the Indira Gandhi Stadium, a state-of-the-art facility that has hardly been used since the 2010 Commonwealth Games. Dhindsa said CFI was looking at a public-private partnership for the academy. "It will be tough to do it ourselves and we would need corporate backing. The velodrome has been in dilapidated condition and we need funds to maintain an infrastructure like that," he said of the venue owned by the Sports Authority of India (SAI).
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