Many a knotty issue as the new season begins

IT IS the beginning of a new athletics season. Unlike last year, when the competitive phase began in February, this year it is back to the height of summer, with the first domestic circuit meet scheduled in Nagercoil on June 2.

If last season, there was a `double peak' to be achieved, in the form of the Asian championships at Jakarta followed by the Sydney Olympics, this year there will be the World championships in Edmonton to look forward to. If that is beyond the Indian athlete's capacity, keeping in mind the experience in Seville in 1999 and last year's Olympics, then there will be the Afro-Asian Games in Delhi-no less tougher if the best comes from Africa-and of course, the easier SAF Games in Islamabad, if that comes through.

We all know what a great disaster the Sydney sojourn turned out to be for our athletes. Even as the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) tried to hide behind Karnam Malleswari's lone bronze, Indian athletics was ripped bare.

Yes, K. M. Beenamol did make the semifinals in the 400 metres. The rest was a miserable tale of yet-to-be explained pedestrian performances, far below the levels achieved at home. The Amateur Athletic Federation of India (AAFI), in the post-Sydney phase, has tried to analyse the performances, but has not been able to come up with a coherent, logical explanation for the slump.

Neither the Chief Coach, Bahadur Singh, nor the foreign coaches could explain what really went wrong in Sydney, despite a couple of brainstorming sessions with the AAFI Secretary, Mr. Lalit Bhanot, chief coach of the juniors, J. S. Saini and Olympian Gurbachan Singh Randhawa. A sincere approach would have provided the answers, but then no one was willing to bell the cat.

As we start a fresh year, we have to at least make an attempt to view the scenario in the right perspective and avoid making the same mistakes which led to such a dismal show in the Olympics. To argue that the athletes had met a certain qualifying standard and thus should be entered in the World championships would be to court disaster all over again. Minimum qualifying standards are for the IAAF to stick to. The AAFI should spell out its selection policy, criteria, guidelines or whatever. It should not deviate from that. Laying down stiffer norms just for the consumption of the media will do no good.

Just recall the run-up to the Olympics. The men's short relay team cheated by running in an inside lane in an effort to reach a stiffer standard than the norm laid down by the IAAF. It was at first disqualified, then given another chance and duly cleared for the Olympics. `Participation by hook or crook' should not be the athletes' motto. The tragedy is, the federation, thanks to a few selectors, is seen as abetting such malpractices.

The ratification of national records set last season is another important topic that the AAFI has to tackle head-on. It has dithered so far, but the time has come to take a decision either way. There was such a great flurry of records in June and July last year that India's best known woman athlete, P. T. Usha, demanded more stringent conditions being laid down for ratifying records, including dope-testing.

Stung by the criticism, the AAFI had, at that time, announced that the performance of the record-setters would be watched up to the Olympics and then only the records ratified. For good measure, it went through the charade of dope-testing in subsequent meets, though the `Olympian tragedy' told its own tale.

The matter will come up before the AAFI annual general meeting at Bangalore on June 11. The Executive had left the final decision to the general body after a two-member panel comprising Gurbachan Singh Randhawa, and S. P. Pillai, of Kerala, had gone into the issue. The general opinion was that since the AAFI had no clear- cut norms so far for a mandatory dope test before ratification, all records should be approved if they met all other conditions. In future, dope-testing could be made mandatory.

Old-timers had this feeling for long that the federation was out to project a healthy picture of Indian athletics by making sure that age- old records were no longer standing. There should be nothing wrong in such an approach, but when unfair means are allowed to creep in, it is time to sit up and take note. Milkha Singh, Gurbachan Singh Randhawa, Sriram Singh, Mohinder Singh Gill, T. C. Yohannan and P. T. Usha might soon go out of the Indian record books. But will that be proof of the true calibre of today's crop of athletes.

Eighteen national records were bettered last year and one equalled. Twelve of the records came in the women's section; the one equalled was also by a woman. In the unprecedented assault on records, three of P. T. Usha's long-standing marks were also swept aside; one of Milkha's, too.

Two of the women's records were set abroad, Beenamol's 51.21s for the 400m in an IAAF Permit meet in Kiev and Anuradha Biswal's 13.40s for the 100m hurdles at the Asian championships in Jakarta. Bobby Aloysius's 1.86m for the high jump which equalled her own national mark, came at the Malaysian Open in Penang. Perhaps no one will grudge the approval of these marks, though this is not to suggest that the technical conduct or dope controls in meets abroad are in any way better than ours or these girls had been dope-tested after their respective competitions.

Two others were achieved in `mixed' competitions, meaning competitions in which men and women were participating together. These were the 6.59m set by Anju Markose in long jump at Bhopal and the 58.64m reached by Gurmeet Kaur, presumably with the `new' javelin at Bangalore. These should be rejected straightaway since in principle, marks achieved in `mixed' competitions should not be allowed.

An argument can be made out to okay such marks in field events saying that no material advantage is being gained by the woman athlete since jumpers and throwers have to perform singly anyway, without someone to chase or keep pace with. But the IAAF does not adopt such a policy when it comes to world or continental records and it would be better if the AAFI also follows such a line of reasoning.

While on the topic of women's javelin, we say `presumably' because no one knows for sure how many domestic meets were held last season with the `new' javelin. In the normal course, one would have taken it for granted that all competitions after April 1, 1999, would have been held with the `new' javelin, but that had not been the case.

To be frank, the most contentious should be the ones in the sprints and throws, both men and women. These are the events in which performance levels have varied considerably at home and abroad, the most glaring example being Shakti Singh's 20.60m in shot put at Bangalore and his 18.40m in Sydney. If Shakti's 20.60 has not been submitted for ratification as an Asian record last July, should it now be taken up for consideration as a national record? That record, if approved, will be hard to beat.

Anil Kumar's marks in 100m (10.21s) and 200m (20.73s), Paramjeet Singh's in 400m (45.56s) and, among women, Rachita Mistry's in 100m (11.26s) and Vinita Tripathi's in the 200m (23.04s), though they evoke awe and admiration, should also trigger a debate. All of them should figure in the top 10 in Asia for 2000, but the question of credibility will always crop up, no matter how the AAFI panel finally gives its ruling.

Unless dope-testing is made mandatory for the ratification of a national record, the debate will continue. And please, do not say that the samples will be tested at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) lab in Delhi. If that lab is to be taken seriously, then there is no doping in Indian athletics. If the lab did turn out positive tests, then the AAFI and the SAI have been playing games.

Mercifully, the Ukrainian doctor, Dr. Yuriy Boyko, has not been given a new contract by the SAI. Not yet anyway. Interestingly, two of the Ukrainian coaches are back, one in sprints and the other in javelin throw. That last one should surprise many, for, Jagdish Bishnoi, with a best of 79.67m at home, threw the javelin to a distance of 70.86m in the Sydney Olympics.

Talking of doctors and injuries, one should go into the cases, even if fleetingly, of Sunita Rani, Gulab Chand and Bahadur Prasad. One could have included Jyotirmoyee Sikdar as well in this list, but the double gold medallist at the Bangkok Asian Games, seems to have plunged into the world of politics.

Down with a stress fracture last June, though foolishly projected as a prospective team member for the Olympics in September (she did make the trip, some say as a Government observer and the others say as part of the team itself), Sunita Rani is not yet in competition trim. At least that is what one heard the last time. It will be a pity if she is forced to skip part or whole of this season, too.

Gulab Chand sat out the Railway meet in March, troubled by a hip injury, while Bahadur Prasad, though he wants to try the marathon out, will find it difficult to get back into action due to a recurring calf muscle strain. There are, of course, several others who are either nursing injuries or limping back into contention.

Not all of them have received the kind of attention national- level athletes should get from the SAI and the federation. Gulab and Bahadur Prasad are fending for themselves, though departmental assistance might be there for them to fall back on. But that will hardly be comparable to the facilities and expertise that the SAI can provide through various hospitals in Delhi. We tend to look after our top athletes only when they are in camps. And injured athlets don't get into the camps!

No doubt, injuries are part and parcel of athletics. But they could be minimised if the tracks are in the best of shapes, the medical assistance is of the top order and there is no reckless short-cuts taken to get an athlete back on track. Alas, we begin our new season at Nagercoil! Come to think of it, is there a synthetic track at Nagercoil?

K. P. MOHAN

New Delhi

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Section  : Sport
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