Physio’s absence leaves lifters angry

GOLDCOAST: Despite their players bagging a gold medal and a silver to open the country’s account in the Commonwealth Games here on Thursday, Indian weightlifting administrators and coaches were left fuming as they did not have the services of a physiotherapist inside the warm-up area to support the lifters.

“We had withdrawn a manager and put in a request for a physio and that was approved by the Sports Ministry. But the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) officials goofed up and did not get him the right accreditation that could allow him entry into the warm-up area to help weightlifters,” said Sahadev Yadav, the secretary general of Indian Weightlifting Federation.

Though weightlifting physio A. Saxena has got accreditation, it allows him to access only the training facilities.

Earlier, P Gururaja, who won silver in men’s 56kg category, raised the issue of physiotherapist’s absence.

Gururaja was hampered by niggles in his back and knee and could not get his back properly taped inside the warm-up area because of the physio’s absence. “The physio was not allowed inside and helped me from outside. My back didn’t feel as tight as I would have liked and did not support me as much as I would have liked during clean and jerk,” said Gururaja.

Sahadev Yadav was relentless in his attack on IOA for this goof-up. “Players get to have their parents in the Games Village, officials have their wives and children. But there is no place for a physio,” he said.

As per the norms set by the Commonwealth Games Federation and the Sports Ministry, officials should not be more than 33% of the total contingent with the rest of them being athletes. But Indian administrators have as usual compromised on coaches, physios and doctors for ‘extra officials’. The IOA washes its hands off the situation saying since neither the government nor the IOA pays for these extra officials, their presence doesn’t cost the exchequer. However, their number actually impacts the total number of places India get inside the Games Village.

IOA secretary-general Rajiv Mehta rejected all allegations and said that the physio’s name was not in the list on cut-off date.

“They made the change late. Still we tried but our request to have him as physio was rejected. As he has been included in place of an official, Saxena got the privileges that the official had.”

Administrators are busy ensuring their family members get to stay in Games Village while we struggled to get a room for our physio.

SAHDEV YADAV, IWF secy-gen.