HYDERABAD: It is no ordinary skirmish. Two illustrious personalities of archery are refusing to relent. The fight is between well-known coach Cherukuri Satyanarayana and Arjuna awardee Jyothi Surekha Vennam. A few days after Satyanarayana — Vijayawada’s Volga Archery Academy chief coach — called off his hunger strike, he told Express that a rally will be organised from the academy to the Sports Authority of Andhra Pradesh (SAAP) office in Vijayawada on May 17 to protest against the alleged abusive statements made by Surekha and her father.
The coach also stated that a PIL will be filed in the high court this month. “The process has already started,” he said. Satyanarayana had called the hunger strike demanding an apology from Surekha and her father for saying that she had never been trained by him. “My son (Cherukuri) Lenin and I trained her for about seven years, and this is how she responds? By openly abusing me and my family? They even abused my little daughter (CH Dolly Shivani) who is only six.” Surekha has denied all the allegations. “I am not going to change my statement because it will be disrespectful to the people who have really trained me, such as J Rama Rao sir and Jeevan Jyoti Singh Teja sir,” she said on Monday.
The seeds of discontent were sown by an AP government order which stated that `15 lakh be awarded to Satyanarayana from the amount that had been promised to Surekha. The latter had denied his role as coach. Surekha then threatened to go on hunger strike. A revised order had then awarded an amount (`76.53 lakh, which is also under question by Surekha) to the athlete.
“Coaches, office-bearers and trainees from all district archery associations are in my support. They are coming to the city on May 17 for a meeting during which Surekha and her father’s actions will be condemned. Then, we will proceed with the rally,” said Satyanarayana, who is also the Andhra Pradesh Archery Association secretary.