Foreign field will motivate athletes to perform

“This is what I would like to see removed,” says Lalit Bhanot, secretary of the Amateur Athletic Federation of India (AAFI). “I have insisted that all athletes participate in the last three domestic meets (beginning from Mumbai last week). The athletes must learn to compete more,” he adds.

If there is one athlete who is not scared of competition, it is probably PT Usha. In her heyday she did not compete internationally as much as she ought to have,but now in the extended twilight of her career, she is still hungry. She may not be the force to reckon with at the continental level, but she is good enough at home. It has been 20 years since she first ran for India in a meet in Pakistan in 1979, but she is still the queen of the Indian track scene.

The year 2000 will once again see the Asian Athletic Championships — and who knows Usha could still be a part of the team — and then of course there is the Olympics, where India has no hopes, but a team will nevertheless be sent. The real goal, as the AAFI and its coaches see, is the 2002 Asian Games in Pusan. That for the layman may seem way off, but in athletics, gains of an entire season can be frittered away in the space of a few weeks or months. Lack of competition, bad off-season, niggling injuries…

The athletics squad was the toast of the Indian contingent at the Bangkok Asian Games last Deecember. The success will become meaningful only if the Indians consolidate on this and induct a few moretalented juniors into the fold.

Jyotirmoyee Sikdar has not competed since the Asian Games, as with quarter-miler Paramjit Singh, who is nursing injuries. Yet, one must admit that Indian athletics has suddenly chanced upon some worthwhile talent, like Sanjay Kumar Rai, who, in a matter of weeks has become the only Indian to go past eight metres in long jump twice. Then there are the likes of Sunita Rani, Gulab Chand and Gojen Singh.

In the absence of Rajeev Balakrishnan, who has virtually given up athletics in favour of a career in computers in the US, sprinter Anil Kumar has made rapid strides. Also interesting is the progress of Gulab Chand, now an established name, and he in turn has a couple of youngsters like Harish Tiwari and N Gojen Singh to push him in distance events. Old favourites like Shakti Singh in shot put and discus and Neelam Singh in women’s discus chug along unconquered on the domestic circuit.

More than 120 athletes, including about 40 from six countries other than India, will be seenin action in 13 events, three of which have been restricted to India alone. After the Salwan meet, there will be the sixth and the last meet of the year, Raja Bhalendra Singh International meet on October 15.

The 40-odd foreign participants are from Belarus, Iran, Kenya, Mauritius, Sri Lanka and Ukraine. None of them are household names in the vein of those who frequented India in the days when it hosted the IAAF Permit meets, yet there are the kinds who would push Indians to perform above themselves.