CHENNAI: Domestic calendar, validation of online meetings and the way ahead for current office bearers whose tenure is getting over this year are some of the takeaways from the Special General Meeting (SGM) on Saturday.
A cautious approach is what the AFI would take. They are looking to begin the season by September if present COVID- 19 danger ambles to a halt.
The meeting, where more than 100 officials from different units took part in, decided to begin the season that was halted due to the lockdown in March, with the Indian Grand Prix on September 12 followed by the Open Nationals from September 20-24 and then the Federation Cup on October 5-9.
The second Indian GP would be held on October 20 followed by Interstate Athletics from October 29- Nov 2. As reported by this newspaper, the Indian athletes will not go abroad till next year.
World Athletics has already said that the Olympic qualification period will remain suspended till November 30. So the early part of the season would be to build intensity for next year and all athletes are expected to remain in India till December.
AFI planning committee chairman Lalit Bhanot said the competition calendar that was planned in two phases for this season has been adjusted in one delayed phase. High-performance director Volker Hermann, chief coach Bahadur Singh and deputy chief coach Radhakrishnan Nair shared the calendar with the house.
“We have to consider the local situation as well,” said Volker during the meeting. “Our main competition is, of course, the Olympics in 2021. We hope there will be the world relay championships at the beginning of May in Poland.”
“Not just international meets, but we have to consider the local situations as well. We hope to conduct national meets from September to November. The rationale behind this (calendar) is to enable our athletes to achieve higher intensity closer to international meets.” Immediately after the domestic season, the senior athletes will start preparing for the next season.
“The athletes will attain a little higher intensity as we start preparing for the first competitions in March (IGPs),” he said. The Olympic-bound athletes would be going to Europe or in the United States for training and compete in international meets. End of June would be the last qualifying event in India — Inter-state athletics.”
“The final calendar would be chalked out only after the lockdown is over,” said Bhanot. Some of the athletes stuck in Patiala during the lockdown wanted to go home if they did not get permission to train outside when lockdown was relaxed but the AFI has made it clear that anyone who goes home will not be allowed back and be a risk to other athletes’ health. Quarantine will definitely be mandatory.
Online meeting
In what could be a first, the AFI has made it official that all meetings on online platforms would be valid. As reported by this newspaper, the AFI wanted to host meetings through videoconferencing to reduce cost and save the time of officials who otherwise need to take leave or keep away from their businesses.
However, Bhanot said that elections will not be held online because physical presence would be required for casting votes and the returning officer’s presence too is mandatory. “For other meetings like coaches’ or technical officials’, we can do meetings through videoconferencing,” said Bhanot. “We will be able to save a lot of time and money.” The constitution of the AFI will be amended accordingly