Wary federation tells athletes to focus on training, exposure trips
NEWDELHI: The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) has finally decided to clamp down on the felicitations and functions of Jakarta Asian Games medalwinning athletes, putting in place a stringent code in order to prepare them for the two-day World Relays competition next year in the Japanese city of Yokohama (May 11-12). The top 10 teams will get automatic berth to the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.
The AFI’S 2019 roadmap forbids ‘Olympic hopefuls’ from leaving the national camp —which started on October 10 across the country — for long periods for sponsorship deals and advertisement campaign. Their training base too has been shifted to foreign soil. “Celebrations were a major distraction post the Jakarta Asian Games and players will not get any leave,” said Radhakrishnan Nair, who is overseeing the national camp in Patiala.
World U-20 champion in 400m, Hima Das, has been told to cut down on excessive travelling pertaining to endorsements. She had also won three medals, including individual silver in 400m, at the Asian Games.
Asian Games silver medallist in men’s 400m hurdle, Ayyasamy Dharun, wasn’t allowed to leave the camp for Inter-university athletics in Mangalore last November as, according to Nair, “college-level events don’t fit into our schemes of things”.
Nair said the “only option” was to shift the training base outside India so that “there is no distraction”.
From December till February, the 4x400m relay squad (men and women) will train in Turkey.
Asian Games champion in javelin throw Neeraj Chopra’s plans to train in Australia for three weeks has been abandoned due to visa problem. He will now travel to South Africa for three months. Triple jumper Arpinder Singh is leaving for the US, while shot putter Tejinderpal Singh Toor will train in New Zealand for a major part of next season.
The athletes will return in the second week of February to compete in the March 15-18 Federation Cup, a qualifying event for Asian Championships.
After the Federation Cup, the team, especially t he relay squads, will train in Oman to prepare for the Asian Championships (Doha -- April 21), which is the qualifying meet for the World Championships in September.
After Doha, the relay team will fly to Japan for a pre-training camp for World Relays. “Instead of coming back home, we have planned a 15-20 days camp in Japan,” said Nair.
The targets too are steep. The AFI wants the women’s team to