Lack of events hurts athletes ahead of Asian C’ship at home
KOCHI: Even as the country gears up to host this year’s Asian Athletics Championship in July, a majority of Indian athletes might be feeling hard done by, as they will be competing in the much-awaited competition without partaking in enough build-up events.
Being the hosts, it would have perfectly made sense had there been more domestic events in the Athletics Federation of India’s (AFI) yearly calender. But that has not been the case. The calender features just four events ahead of the continental championship, which is slated to be held at the Jharkhand capital of Ranchi from July 1-4.
Three legs of the Indian Grand Prix, and the Federation Cup Senior Nationals, are the only four events listed in the domestic calendar ahead of the multi-nation event. Some of the leading coaches and athletes have raised their reservations on this issue, as they feel that athletes need to participate in more competitions ahead of big events, if they want to peak their performances at the right time.
“Athletes need more competitions. In Australia, we have national competitions, Grand Prix events and state competitions, and an athlete gets anything between 16 to 25 competitions per season. I feel this is one area where Indian athletics should look into and catch up with what’s happening all around the world. I don’t mind athletes not winning in other competitions, but would like to see them excel in targeted competitions. For that, you need as many build-up events as possible,” noted Javelin coach Garry Calvert told Express.
However, the AFI feels that getting four or five events prior to the targeted event is enough. “First of all, we are giving more importance to the World Championship than the continental event. Still, we have scheduled four domestic events ahead of the latter. Then there are three legs of the Asian Grand Prix. If the coaches feel that they need more competitions, we have asked them to inform us in writing, informing us what all foreign competitions they want to compete in. After that, we can ask the Sports Ministry to include their requests in the ACTC,” said AFI secretary CK Valson.
However, a section of athletes said foreign competitions would be limited to a select number of athletes. “If we are getting two entries in one individual event, sicne we are the hosts, we will be fielding at least 78 athletes in a total of 38 disciplines, in both men’s and women’s categories. Then there are the relay events. The Asian Grand Prix is an invitation tournament, and last year, we got just 24 entries in both men’s and women’s sections.
“This means we can’t do away with domestic competitions on the pretext of foreign events. The benefit that domestic tournaments bring to our athletes, no foreign event can match that,” a senior coach opined.
shan.as@newindianexpress.com