AFI President hints at a smaller contingent for 2020 Olympics

AFI President hints at a smaller contingent for 2020 Olympics

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Written by: SportsCafe Desk

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Adille Sumariwalla has indicated that India’s athletics contingent for the 2020 Olympics will be much smaller than the 2016 contingent of 36. He has stated that the qualifying standards will be set very high and the athletes who are expected to win medals or reach the finals will only be selected.

In the 2016 Rio Olympics, there were 36 athletes who represented India with no one managing a medal, and The AFI (Athletics Federation of India) President Adille Sumariwalla has clearly expressed his disappointment about the same. He has claimed that there is a strategy in place for the next edition of the mega event scheduled in 2020 in Tokyo.

“Our aim in Olympics will no longer be participation only. Our aim is to win medals or in the finals. We don’t want to take people who will not be in the Olympics finals. We had 34 athletes in Rio and we came back with nothing. We don’t want to do it anymore,” the former sprinter said, reported PTI.

The apex governing body had set stringent qualification standards in the recent Federation Cup, which acted as a qualifier for the upcoming Asian Athletics Championship. Sumariwalla has gone ahead and told that the qualifying standards for the Olympics will be higher than those set by the IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations).

“We are in the process of making our own qualifying standard for Olympics and that may be higher than the IAAF standards. We are deliberating on it and will make a policy decision 12 months before the Olympics. We want to take a group of killer athletes in the Olympics and there will be no passengers who will distract the rest of them,” he asserted.

Sumariwalla has justified his stand by talking about the Asian Games, where India performed exceptionally well and ended up with their second highest medal tally of 19 medals in track and field events. “In the Asian Games, the ministry’s selection criteria was top six but most of our athletes were in top three or four and we came back with a rich medal haul,” he said.

Sumariwalla also went on length to criticize the pedagogy of National Institute of Sports in Patiala, and suggested that the 57-year-old institute should see an overhaul its teaching methods. 

“The NIS is having an 18-month course. But the person who passed NIS course with specialisation in athletics fails in the IAAF level 1 course which is the basic level. That is the competency of our coaches who passed from NIS,” said the 1980 Olympic qualifier.

“I have given a report to Sports Authority of India to change people who are giving lectures for the courses at the NIS and a revamp in the curriculum. 25 years back, it was a fantastic institution. We have talent but we need other things also,” he added.

Sumariwalla was present in order to announce the team for the Asian Athletics Championship in Doha scheduled for four days starting April 21, and among other things, he also spoke about the controversy surrounding the decision to leave out long jumper M Shreeshankar from the squad of the continental event.

Shankar, who was suffering from a heel injury had written to the apex body that he would be available for the selection, and that he had started practising after his recovery. However, he was snubbed due to his unavailability in the Fed Cup. The federation chief was also vocal in his criticism about the athlete’s training by his father Murali, a former triple jumper, who had refused to send him out his hometown of Palakkad, Kerala to train.

“We offered him to train at Chula Vista [in USA] and we also said that his father or even mother can accompany him. We were even ready to send Bedros Bedrosian [former jump coach]) to his place but his father would not agree. They are not willing to leave Palakkad,” Sumariwalla said.

“At the training base at Palakkad, there is no proper facility, no machinery for recovery and rehabilitation. We have recently given him recovery equipment [brought from outside] by giving custom duty. If you want to base yourself at Palakkad and hope to win an Olympic medal, good luck to you,” he said.

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