KOCHI : Romanian long jump coach Bedrose Bedrosian, who had assisted Ankit Sharma for qualifying for the Rio Olympics with a national record, is unlikely to return to the country.
Express had earlier reported the ordeal of the young jumper who had to train alone after Bedrosian failed to return to the national camp, citing lack of concrete communication from the Indian officials on contract extension. Now, the worst is likely to happen as the coach, miffed by the delay, wrote to the Sports Ministry and SAI that he might have a rethink on training Ankit and other young athletes.
The decision would hamper the preparations of Ankit, who had registered his personal best of 8.19m at Almaty, for the upcoming Asian and World Championships.
Sources close to the athlete and the coach had alleged that the former is yet to receive a fresh contract. However, a top-level AFI official refuted this allegation.
“As far as we know, the contract was given to him. But he had communicated to SAI officials that he would be available only after this October and this was viewed as unacceptable by the officials. There is no merit in the allegation that he hasn’t been given a new contract. If all other foreign coaches were given an extension and they have joined the camps, why should he be not given one? He has been given. But the problem is that he has intimated that he would be joining after the Asian and World Championships,” the source said.
When contacted, SAI’s Executive Director (TEAMS) SS Roy gave an evasive reply. “I was out of the town for couple of days. So I don’t have a ready answer. I can comment on that later only,” he said. However, Ankit said whenever he tried to contact the officials, they replied that the “process is on.”
“In the first place, January isn’t the time to start the process. They should have done it much before, during October at least so that we could have gotten enough time and competitions under our belt. I’m sad to say that the preparation time for Asian Championship (July) and World Championship (August) has passed.
In the blame game of all the stakeholders, I am the ultimate loser,” Ankit told Express. Ankit added that even if the coach had written that he would join only after the two big events, there is nothing wrong in that as he doesn’t want to risk his reputation by taking an under-prepared athlete to a big event. “As a coach, it’s his reputation that takes a hit if his athlete fail to deliver. He might have felt that he hasn’t got enough time to work with me.”
shan@newindianexpress.com