Coach travels with own funds

Despite Indian paraathletes consistently touching new heights in the international arena, Sports Authority of India (SAI) is meting out step-motherly treatment to para-sports.

The name of the coach of javelin thrower Sundar Singh Gurjar, who, on Friday night, became the second Indian para-athlete to win gold in the world championship in London, was not cleared by SAI for the London event.

Coach Mahaveer Prasad Saini was left with two options --- either to cancel the London trip or bear the travelling cost from his own pocket. He decided to travel.

“After the Rio blunder Sundar had gone through a tough time, so a medal-winning performance at world championships is the only way out to help him to forget Rio nightmare. We didn’t want to take any chances, so when my name was not cleared by SAI in the Indian contingent, I decided to travel on my own,” said coach Mahaveer Prasad while talking to HT from London.

“Since the Rio episode, I am not having a cordial relation with SAI. That’s why they have not cleared my name. They blamed me for Sundar reporting late for the event in Rio. But I didn’t know why they are overseeing the fact that I had only got the accreditation of training arena and have no access to the competition arena, so how come they can hold me responsible for all the fiasco that made Sundar disqualified in Rio Games,” said Mahaveer, who is an athletics coach with Rajasthan Sports Council and is based in Jaipur.

Paralympics Committee of India (PCI) forwarded the name of five coaches, including Mahaveer Parsad, for the World Championship, but SAI gave a green signal to only three coaches.