nainital is the city of lakes losing its penchant for athleticism sports veterans of the city at least think so according to them the residents of the city of lakes used to have a flair for athletics whether it was boxing hockey football table tennis badminton sprinting or any other sport the town still boasts of at least 25 veterans who made their way to become national champions and olympians besides attaining state and district level laurels but lately the picture is not so rosy ironically at a time when uttarakhand is celebrating 2015 as sports year and has pitched itself as the host of upcoming 38th national games in 2018 veterans believe lack of enthusiasm proper facilities government policy and easy access to modern technology are reasons behind the decline gradually with technology making inroads into daily lives youngsters in hilly areas have more options to pursue for a better lifestyle than only excel in the sporting arena they add rajendra singh rawat goalkeeper of the indian hockey team in seoul olympics south korea in 1988 rues what he terms a sharp dip in sporting standards in our days hockey was more than a sport it was a religion and doing regular practice something sacred agrees kamal jagati 43 bronze medallist of under18 national boxing championship we did not have much facilities then but worked hard to achieve our goals now a hotelier jagati says that technology and easy access to internet have changed the landscape in the city earlier we just had nature at our disposal but now we have everything with us just a click away and that has changed things a lot women sports enthusiasts feel gender bias is another factor which has thwarted growth of promising talents anju jagati 38 who excelled in athletics says during our time parents were not interested to let girls pursue sports compared to boys but now that times have changed let us hope that we get to see better results on the flip side though there are also a few who have hope from the youth like suresh pandey 43 a gold medallist in the 1994 malaysian marathon he thinks the talent in youngsters is there they just need more grooming and proper facilities to achieve full bloom kids here are still very enthusiastic about sports if we could provide them with an appropriate environment they can achieve much more than our expectations he says