CHENNAI: It's almost a cliche to say life’s tough during COVID, but it’s inevitable. All walks of life have crawled to some kind of normalcy. So did sports. Training is back and so are some select competitions. However, for the Indian athletics squad, it’s far from over. No competition, no training during lockdown, no leaving camp and now with the Olympics less than 200 days away, newly-appointed national chief coach Radhakrishnan Nair is facing challenging times. From India’s qualification hopes to Hima Das not running 400m relay, he bares it all during an interview over phone to this daily. Excerpts:
Taking charge during COVID times must have been challenging?
I must admit when I took over it was a very challenging situation. Even now, it is the same. The most important thing was to keep our athletes mentally fit rather than physically fit. Of course, during the complete lockdown also, our athletes were bound to Tokyo (and Tokyo hopefuls) were able to do some fitness training inside their hostels. We then resumed training in a restricted manner, gradually allowed to use gym and so on. Things are going on as per the planning commission, the coaches and experts. It is going on smooth. We are right now planning to have some competitions in February, though it is not confirmed as yet. For juniors, we are having the Junior Fed Cup in Assam. Only a few states are allowing competitions. So we are not sure how the situation will evolve. Now states like Jharkhand and Assam have started allowing training of athletes.
We have some training programmes abroad. It was supposed to start with a throws camp in South Africa but because of the situation there, we had to shift the camp to Bhubaneswar where the state government is supporting a lot so is (the) Sports Authority of India. When the vaccine comes, we hope we will be getting it for athletes, so we can go for training and competitions abroad. Most of the international competitions, especially junior Asian meets, have been postponed and rescheduled. It is not only us, but globally competitions have also been affected.
So you will be getting fewer events for qualifying for Tokyo?
As of today, most of the senior competitions are on. The Asian race walking championships have been cancelled. We have Asian championships in May. World relay is as per schedule (May). There are some invitational competitions we are going to get in June in Kazakhstan and Kyrgistan. We have our domestic competitions. The Federation Cup is scheduled from March 10 to 14. Then we have inter-state senior nationals between June 25-29. There are a few Indian Grand Prix as well. We should not be losing too many competitions for the senior group. Then there are other competitions. They have junior championships in Guwahati.
Realistically, where do we stand on the qualifying prospects of two of the three relay teams (the mixed team has qualified)?
In 400m men and women’s, we are in a comfortable position now because of the world rankings (at present India are 12th on the list in both men’s and women’s). We have the world relay championships in May. If it happens, I am sure we will attain the qualification standards. We are focusing on the 4x100m women also. We have a bright chance to qualify if we can manage around 43.00 seconds. I believe that we will qualify in 4x100m women’s.
Another focus is on our javelin throwers. Two have already qualified in men’s (Neeraj Chopra and Shivpal Singh). Annu Rani has a good world ranking in women’s so she may qualify. In shot put, Tejinder Pal Singh Toor should qualify. Sreeshankar M (long jump) and Avinash Sable (steeplechase) have already qualified. We expect more walkers to qualify. So we are in a good shape.
Have you identified your core 4x400m relay team?
Identifying will be the last part of our work. We are training a bunch of athletes — 13 men and 12 women. We will assess their performances in the coming competitions before deciding. Who will run will be decided during competitions like the Federation Cup, the senior nationals and GPs. We are planning to go to Poland in April for training and we might have a few competitions there. Our aim is not just training but also competing. Everything will depend on the Covid situation.
Will we see Hima Das running 400m this year?
We have not started the training for 400m so we don’t expect that she will be running 4x400 mixed relay. She will definitely be running 4x100m relay and she will qualify for 200m individual.
How do you see Neeraj Chopra for Olympics?
Right now he has no injury and is doing very well.
Could a lack of competition affect our athletes’ performance?
It is not just our athletes. It is a global issue. It has slightly affected but not much. But then it is affecting everyone. I don’t think there will be much difference in the intensity of competitions. I think even world records will be set this year.
What are the targets for the 2024 and 2028 Games?
We have a comprehensive plan already drafted and will be submitting to the government today (Wednesday) or tomorrow (Thursday). It’s about 2024, 2028 and beyond. We are having a multi-discipline plan for different age groups. From 14 years to 17 years, 18 years-22 years and then the core group up to around 31 depending on the discipline. For example, the throws group mature late. We have a system to train them now with SAI’s National Centres of Excellence. Right now we have a core group till 2024. Then we will be looking into other groups. Some of the core group members will be leaving before 2028... then athletes from other categories will be graduated to the core group. We have a sustainable plan. We are not only planning for Olympics, we are also planning for the 2022 Asian and Commonwealth Games, 2026 Asian and Commonwealth Games and beyond.