Coimbatore - Sports and Recreation

Sports and Recreation

Motor sports plays a large part in the city, with Coimbatore often referred to as the "Motor sports Capital of India" and the "Backyard of Indian Motorsports". Some wealthy industrialists, such as S.Karivardhan, spearheaded motor racing, making Coimbatore the country's motor racing hub when he designed and built entry level racecars. The city has a Formula 3 Category circuit and few Go-Kart circuits, formula cars manufacturers and FIA member motorsport associations that condustc National Championship races and Rallies. National Champion races for Formula racing (Cars), Motorcycle racing, Go-Kart racing are held in Kari Motor Speedway. The tyre manufacturer MRF assembles and builds Formula Ford cars in Coimbatore in association with former F3 ChampionJ.Anand. Super Speeds designs and constructs almost all Formula cars. Rallying is another major event with all teams based in Coimbatore. Rallies are conducted in closed roads around Coimbatore districts. Narain Karthikeyan, Indias most famous driver, became the first Indian to enter Formula One in 2005. Other famous motorsport personalities from Coimbatore are J. Anand, N. Leela Krishnan and V. R. Naren Kumar.

Nehru Stadium, built originally for football, can also host athletic meets. The stadium is undergoing a renovation with Korean grass in the centre and a synthetic track around it for athletics. Apart from the stadium, the city also has several sports clubs. The Coimbatore Golf Club is home to a major 18-hole golf course. The Coimbatore Cosmopolitan Club, which is more than 100 years old, was founded for Indian members only, in response to the English Coimbatore Club which did not admit Indians until the 1950s. The Coimbatore Flying Club is located in the Coimbatore airport premises. The prominent tennis player Nirupama Vaidyanathan hails from Coimbatore.

Coimbatore also houses a number of museums and art galleries like G.D. Naidu Museum & Industrial Exhibition, H A Gass Forest Museum, Government Museum, Kadhi Gandhi Gallery and Kasthuri Srinivasan Art Gallery and Textile Museum. A science park and a planetarium is being built near Codissia trade fair complex and will be inaugurated by May 2012.

There are several nature and amusement parks in and around the city. Maharaja Theme Park and Multiplex in Nillambur on NH-47 is located inside the city, Black Thunder water theme park which is surrounded by foothills of Western Ghats located on Ooty main road near Mettupalayam have parks like Nilgiri Biosphere Nature Park, Kovai Kondattam amusement park in Perur, Coimbatore Since the 1980s, the city has had about 10 small to medium sized shopping complexes like Cheran towers on Arts collage road and Lakshmi Complex in Gandhipuram. Coimbatore has few number of malls and few are under construction. Among which a large mega mall - Brookefields started functioning in 2008. The city also has a number of parks including VOC park, the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University park, Race Course children's park, Bharathi park in Saibaba Colony and many more parks. Coimbatore Zoo houses a number of animals and birds and is located near VOC park. Singanallur lake is also a popular tourist and bird watcher destination. Though there are a lot of entertainment centres mushrooming in the city, visiting the cinema still remains the city's most popular recreational activity.