Usha all the way

At Fukuoka, India finally ended her gold drought, thanks to the grit and stamina of its women athletes. P.T. Usha, of course, heads the r...

At Fukuoka, India finally ended her gold drought, thanks to the grit and stamina of its women athletes. P.T. Usha, of course, heads the roll of honour with her blazing comeback at the grand old age of 33, but great performances by Prameela G.G. at the heptathalon, Neelam J. Singh in the discus throw and the trio who with Usha won the women8217;s relay were enough to warm any heart.

Their victory is even more commendable because Indians competing in the twelfth Asian Athletics Championship were on their own, with very little support from the country8217;s sports administrators.

True, Usha delivered the goods. But was it fair of India to expect anything from her, given her age? The athletes from other nations that she has competed with in the past are now training the next generation. Usha is forced to remain in harness, competing with people who are a decade younger than her, because the sports authorities have failed to create an institutional system of training in which the stars of the past can find usefulemployment.

Again, it is because of this failure that Usha remains the only option for the selectors, forcing her to risk humiliation and defeat at the hands of athletes for whom she is an idol. Indian athletics, it appears, is caught in a cycle of apathy. The question is: can new life be breathed into it?

Fukuoka brings some confidence that this can be done. The challenge really is to utilise great individual performances, like those displayed by Usha, Neelam, Prameela, Paramjit Singh 8212; who finally broke Milkha Singh8217;s record in the 400 m 8212; and others in Japan, to help create a higher threshold of sporting endeavour. In other words, these sterling performances must not only inspire other athletes but get the sports establishment to bestir itself.

At the end of the championship, India is thankfully not at the very bottom of the tally 8212; a position she has long suffered. But a few medals should not be allowed to cloud the fact that there are significant hurdles to be crossed before India can claim hertrue place in the sporting world.

For one, the government must stop looking to the private sector for help in training athletes. True, corporate money can help out, but the ultimate responsibility for promoting sport will remain with the state for a long time to come. It is in recognition of this patently obvious fact, after all, that a full-fledged Sports Ministry exists.

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The government first fails to identify talent, then it fails to train it and, to heap insult on injury, it fails to secure its future. In India, a career in sport is over the day the sportsman steps off the field, leaving him a misfit in civvy street. Yet, this is the point at which he is at his most valuable, when he can locate talent and use his experience to nurture it.

People like Usha are the elder statesmen of Indian sport. Sportspersons of the present generation look up to them for inspiration. They should not be expected to get down and slug it out on the field. They should, instead, be put in charge of identifying new namesand making them competitive at the international level. Though their talent is undeniable, what they really have to offer the nation is the redoubtable experience that years of competition have brought.