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Journalism of Courage
PUNE, Aug 18: Adile Sumariwalla, buoyant on a new athletics order in the country, looks forward to India doubling the medal count at the next Asian Games as he cheers his wards at the Shiv Chhattrapati Shivaji Sports Complex, Balewadi.
A member of the National selection committee, India’s 100m sprint record holder enthuses on a revised athletic calendar, the surfeit of competition and whitewashing of records with encouraging frequency as athletics in the country slowly but surely dons a new dimension.
India’s fastest man — his 10.4 timing still stands — is in Pune watching junior athletes vie for selection ahead of the West Zone meet at Gandhinagar, Gujarat commencing August 20.
Also secretary of the Maharashtra Athletic Association and the Bombay Athletic Association, 40-year-old Sumariwalla who participated at the 1980 Moscow Olympics and picked up a gold medal at the South Asian Federation Games has a vibrant message of hope for Indian track and field: “Keep up this tempo and I tell you we will collect 30 medals at Pusan in three years time,” the Mumbai based CEO of an afternoon daily declared.
Tempo, Sumariwalla says, must be read as continuing with intensive camps, sessions with coaches and the infusion of fresh blood into the effort.
Forthright in his views, Sumariwalla, however, somewhat pooh-poohs his own remarkable achievement of 11 successive National titles by reflecting on a changed scenario on the Indian track. Sumariwalla says: “There are three to four guys ready to take you on today. Looking back, I ran alone like an idiot!” he jocularly, but no less pertinently, exclaims.
Among healthy trends in the last four years according to Sumariwalla, has been the revamped calendar to comply with the international season. A start in June instead of sometime during winter, as many as eight circuit meets and refreshingly some money coming into the sport have been well received by the country’s sprint ace.
“A damn good move, this change of schedule,” Sumariwalla opines. “Although, the change has caught us between the devil and the deep sea,” he is quick to add.
The commencement of the season during the monsoon months has left athletes in the cold — with no track work or speed training as athletes struggle to strike peak form.
However, Sumariwalla believes that athletics will gain in the long run — viewing the shot put for men, discus for women, the 4×400 for both men and women and the javelin for women being the India’s great hopes for international acclaim in time to come.
A tally of 30-40 medals in the Asian circuit, Sumariwalla says, would sustain enthusiasm towards making a mark at a global event.
He, however, refused to name athletes who will carry such a hope from the Asiad to the Olympics and possibly the Worlds.
Athletes from all over the State have converged at Balewadi, 15 km from Pune city competing in age groups of under-14, 16, 18 and 20.
Sumariwalla shares the National Selection Committee with Gurcharan Singh Randhawa, Sriram Singh, Shiny Wilson and Bahadur Singh — top former athletes all and in Sumariwalla’s words: “Working for athletics with no axes to grind.”
Selection for the West Zone Meet concluded on Wednesday. The State team will later travel to Lucknow for the Inter-State Championships.
