KOCHI: Right from the start of this year’s National Games preparations, yachting has been in the news; mostly for the wrong reasons, defined largely by a mix of alleged governmental ignorance and lack of training equipment.
As the yachting events of the Games began at the Munambam coast near here on Sunday, more wrong reasons are finding their way into it to make news.
To begin with, the temporary jetty built at the finishing point on the Cherai beach near Munambam collapsed after the first few rounds of the laser category races.
Another grave problem that marred the opening day of yachting was a spat between the competition organisers and locals that caused confusion and delay in the participation of the Kerala team in the race.
Binu Ullanad, a venue manager, said the confusion was regarding who exactly were part of the Kerala team.
According to him, initially only two men - Anand A S and Akash D - were accredited with the National Games Organising Committee to represent Kerala in yachting. They were the ones shortlisted from a batch of 18 persons who had undergone training with Jolly Thomas, the coach who was tasked by the Kerala State Sports Council to find and train the persons to make up the Kerala team.
However, when a team was about to be finalised, Kerala Yachting Association secretary George Loval demanded a selection trial, pitching his proteges Prince Noble and Manu Francis of the Indian Army in for contention. And the army men topped the selection trials, but were not drafted into the team as they did not go through the accreditation process of the Games.
“So, Akash and Anand got the call-up,” Binu said. However, when they were about to enter into the competition, a few locals stopped them and staged a protest demanding the inclusion of Prince and Manu, who belong to Puthuvype, a coastal region close to Munambam.
With Vypin MLA S Sharma intervening in the issue, the Games officials cleared the accreditation of Manu and Prince. “We have processed the accreditation of those two guys (Manu and Prince) and started the event,” said competition manager T Raj Kumar, who insisted that the glitch only claimed ‘some 20 minutes’.
However, an official who was in Munambam from morning to evening and wished to be anonymous said that the yachting, which began late at 2 pm instead of the scheduled 11 am due to lack of wind, was further delayed by at least an hour because of the ruckus.