NEW DELHI: For the first time in Indian athletics history, a High Performance Director is set to be appointed for the track and field sport in the country with an ambitious target of winning medals from the 2020 Olympics onwards.
The Sports Authority of India (SAI) has given official approval to the Athletics Federation of India's proposal to create the post of High Performance Director for athletics. The track and field sport will join hockey to get such a high-profile post.
Olympian and United States-based coach Derek Boosey, 73, who has an ancestral connection with the country and who has worked in many countries in almost similar positions in the past, is set to be roped in as the first High Performance Director for Athletics.
"SAI has given in principle approval of AFI's proposal to appoint a High Performance Director. The file will now go to the Sports Ministry for final approval," a source in the SAI told PTI.
"It is an ambitious project and the idea is that we should aim at winning Olympic medals from athletics from 2020 Olympics onwards," an AFI source added.
It is learnt that the High Performance Director for athletics may get a salary package of anywhere between USD 7,000 to 8,000 per month, commensurate with the profile of the job.
Boosey is most likely to be appointed for five years till the end of the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. He is expected to present a vision document after taking charge with an aim to start winning medals from 2020 Games onwards.
The High Performance Director will be tasked to look after the grassroot development programme, the schedule of national camps, foreign exposure of top athletes and appointment of coaches.
Boosey, who is connected to India through his grandfather who was born in Pune, took part in the 1968 Olympics. He has a vast experience as a coach working in Korea. His appointment could also herald a shift in the policy of roping in coaches from countries of erstwhile Russia and Eastern Europe.
"For long, the AFI has been taking in coaches from Central Asia and eastern Europe, from the countries that form the erstwhile Russia. Now, a High Performance Director, which is the top job in AFI, is being appointed and this could mean a policy shift," a seasoned coach said on the condition of anonymity.
Boosey, who holds multiple citizenship of United States, United Kingdom and Canada, has worked in several capacities in various countries as head coach and consultant of national teams, as top administrator of major Games and marketing head of national athletics bodies and companies like Nike.
He has also published coaching manuals which were approved by the IAAF for its development programmes throughout the world. He is currently working as track and field coach to NCAA Division One at the Southern University Utah.
From 1974 to 1976, he was the head coach of jumps and multiple events in Canada and then return to that country later on to work as the marketing boss of the national federation whose finances were in shambles after the Ben Johnson doping crisis during the 1988 Seoul Olympics.The Canadian media had described him as the "miracle man" for bringing the sport on track in that country by bringing money through some major sponsorship deals.
He was Director of Athletics for nearly a year in Saudi Arabia in 1976 before taking up the job of head coach decathlon and heptathlon in Australia from 1980 to 1984.
Boosey also served as athletics consultant in Korea from 1984 to 1988 before taking up the job of same nature in China for two years (1988 to 1990).
