THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A centralised facility where athletes can continue training beyond school level as per their ‘respective requirements’ would strengthen the Indian representation in international stages, Olympian K M Beenamol has said.
Speaking about the quality of training given to the student athletes, she called for a centralised strategy of training for the athletes by the Central government.
“In China, students who have talent are brought under one umbrella. There are no divisions like school-level or college-level. Once their tastes and skills are analysed, specific training is provided,” said the former sport star in a tete-a-tete with ‘Express’.
The present situation is that somehow athletes manage to attend national camps and some of them would turn lucky enough to participate in national or international events, she said. Beenamol attributed the reason for the poor performances to the lack of ‘professional’ training.
“The training methodology for the students needs to be updated on constant basis according to the changing global trends in the world of sports,” Beenamol said.
Referring to the conflict of interest between sports associations in the state, she said that scuffles between such groups would affect the careers of budding sports stars.
Beenamol, who visited the Jimmy George Indoor Stadium on Tuesday to witness the qualifying rounds of the women’s gymnastics competitions, said that the associations which set out to save their own interests would not have time to do anything productive for the sports personnel. “They don’t have time to think what should be done so that students would benefit. They dedicate their time and energy to settle disputes between them and to place themselves at the helm of affairs,” said the former sports star.
Since the beginning of the Games, the state’s team for gymnastics has been divided into groups following a conflict of interest between two associations. “Associations should set aside all disputes when it comes to the performances of athletes who are to participate in prestigious events such as this,” she said.
The Olympian opined that the Kerala team should go in for a vigorous medal hunt in the upcoming track and field events of the National Games. “The state is good in track and field competitions and, moreover, this time athletes are getting a chance to perform in their own land where they were born and brought up,” she said.
Sinimol Paulose, Tintu Luka and Preeja Sreedharan are the athletes from whom we can expect medals in track and field, said Beenamol