Journalism of Courage
The Sports Ministry’s ambitious Target Olympics Podium Scheme (TOPS), announced its first batch of beneficiaries who will be allocated funds in the run-up to the Rio Olympics in 2016. Express takes stock of where the athletes in the short-list stand currently — to see what has worked for them and what hasn’t in the last 24 months.
Today, we look at athletics, a discipline in which India has two near-misses in Olympics but no medals. Five athletes have been identified – two throwers, a triple jumper and two race-walkers. There has been some level of opaqueness when it comes to selecting athletes for the scheme and there are some debatable ommissions as well. Tintu Luka, for instance, may get funding as a part of the 4x400m relay team. But training for 800m, her pet event, requires a different programme and assistance, which has been ignored in TOPS. Shot putter Inderjeet Singh, who qualified for the Games, is still missing from the list and so are the two race-walkers — Manish Rawat and Sandeep Kumar who too have booked their Rio berths.
Vikas Gowda (Men’s Discus Throw)
Rs 1.125 crore
Ups: Glasgow CWG gold; Incheon Asiad silver; In last meet at San Diego just 25cm short of Rio Olympics qualifying mark; Finished overall fourth in the year-round, prestigious IAAF Diamond League Series.
Downs: Is stuck to the 7th-8th positions at the Worlds and Olympics while a podium at the biggies eludes him. Though he has been consistent, his personal best was way back in 2012.
Seema Antil (Women’s Discus Throw)
Rs 75 lakh
Ups: Gold at Incheon Asian Games; Silver at Glasgow CWG
Downs: Her personal best throw of 64.84m was recorded10 years ago. She has also been inconsistent — on six years of the past decade her season’s best was less than 60m. Hasn’t travelled to the international Diamond Leagues circuit and thus failed to gain the poise needed for big events that comes with exposure.
Khushbir Kaur (Women’s 20 km walk)
Rs 45 lakh
Ups: Won India its first medal in women’s race walk, a silver, in Asian Games with a timing of 1.33.07 seconds and also qualified for Rio Olympics by clocking 1.33.58 seconds in the IAAF Race Walking Challenge in Portugal. She will also train in Portugal till July.
Downs: Despite qualifying for the Olympics, her timing has dropped, given that her best of 2015 is two minutes more than what she set for herself last year
KT Irfan (20 km Racewalking)
Rs 45 lakh
Ups: Finished fifth in his race at the Asian Games; Came fifth in the 2013 World Race Walking Championships.
Downs: Performances have stagnated since setting the national record in 2012, four minutes off the world record.
(*4x400m women’s relay team (top six Seniors for Rio 2016 and top six Juniors for Tokyo 2020) are expected to be included after the federation identifies the runners).
Arpinder Singh (Men’s triple jump)
Rs 45 lakh
Ups: Picked up a bronze medal at the Asian Championships in 2013 and then a bronze at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow; Set the national record at the Lucknow nationals
Downs: Couldn’t replicate CWG form at Asian Games coming 5th; Distance jumped has deteriorated steadily since setting the national record of 17.17. After that, he has 16.41 at Asian Games, same at National Games and 16.13 in the Fed Cup in Mangalore. The world C’ships and Olympics qualifying is 16.90.
