KOCHI: PT Usha feels athletics competitions may not begin until next year. She also thinks a September start to the season is not practical. Covid-19 cases in the country show no signs of subsiding and that could impact the Athletic Federation of India’s (AFI) resumption plans, which was to try and get the new season underway with the first Indian Grand Prix in Patiala next month.
“How can we think of having events at a time when the virus is spreading at such a rate? How will we travel and how many competitions can be held? Practically, I think we can expect to have events from January or February. I don’t see any events happening this season and it’s better to start planning for next season,” Usha told this daily on Monday.
These days, the Sprint Queen is having ‘sleepless nights’ trying to maintain the morale, fitness and safety of her wards at Usha School of Athletics in Kozhikode. “It becomes very difficult when athletes have to train without knowing when competitions will start. But we have continued training our athletes from all age groups from the time the lockdown was first announced. All safety protocols were in place and we didn’t let anyone from outside enter the campus. The only person who has been travelling in and out is me and even I’ve been extremely careful. I just move between the school and home. We have kids from Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra and their safety is our responsibility,” said Usha.
The likes of Jisna Mathew and Abitha Mary Manuel are the top prospects who train at the academy and Usha says she wants to get them in top shape by next month.“These athletes will start proper training soon and we want them to be competition ready by mid-September. As far as the rest are concerned, we want them to maintain general fitness and endurance. This is something we have been planning, with the calculation that events will restart from the start of next year or so. There is uncertainty but we have to be ready.”
With no events happening, the Usha school has been arranging internal tournaments. “To give them competitive experience, we’ve been organising informal events within our school. We also wanted to take their mind away from the Covid situation. We’ve also been organising dancing and singing competitions, just to bring out their other talents and keep them occupied.”