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AFI sets new norms for private training centres

New Delhi: India's track and field athletes are preparing for the season this year at various private and government run training centres as per Athletics Federation of India (AFI) ambitious plan to give them the freedom to train at centres of their choice. AFI has also done away with long-duration training camps except for relay teams. The idea is to create an open and competitive training environment and broaden the talent pool. Senior AFI officials feel the plan to decentralise training is showing results as is evident from performance at the Asian Championships in Gumi, South Korea, where Indian athletes scooped up 24 medals finishing second in medal tally behind China. However, AFI is also facing some teething troubles in monitoring the athletes and has decided to put in place a mechanism to deal with that. In a meeting with various stakeholders, including government and private entities, AFI set several guidelines that these training centres will have to follow. The federation has already issued directions to athletes to get their training and competition programme cleared by them in case they want to head overseas. AFI said there is a growing trend of athletes choosing to train and compete abroad with funding and support from Target Olympic Podium Scheme and institutes like Reliance and JSW, who run their own centres. But when it comes to major international competitions their performances have dipped. The Paris Olympics were a big lesson for the AFI. Long jumper Jeswin Aldrin, Triple jumper Praveen Chithravel, Javelin throwers Kishore Jena and Annu Rani were among those who failed to deliver in Paris. They weren't even close to their best. Now, the federation doesn't want to make the same mistake with the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games scheduled next year. "We want to ensure that athletes train with a target in mind, and not aimlessly go for overseas competitions. When you are competing abroad, you don't belong to JSW or Reliance, you belong to India," said AFI spokesperson and former president Adille Sumariwalla. Chithravel, who equalled his national record of 17.37m this season, went for a few meets in Spain without AFI's permission. "The point is that they just go and then perform badly. If you are a coach, all we are saying is tell us the annual programme. Which meets you will compete in India and which meet you will compete outside. Why do you want to go to a particular meet and train?" Sumariwalla said the Mission Olympic Cell does not give approval to athlete training abroad without AFI permission. "Earlier there were cases where MOC had given permission even when AFI did not agree and all those athletes failed. Now, they take our approval," he said. AFI also said that Indian coaches have a big role to play in pushing athletes to train outside because of their own interest. "We have a full fledged calendar now in alignment with the world athletics calendar, so why do you want to compete outside? The standard of some of these tournaments are so low. In India you will get better competition," said senior AFI official Lalit Bhanot to stakeholders. "Neeraj Chopra trains outside because of a reason. Jyothi Yarraji can train and compete in meets outside because she doesn't have much competition at home but I can't understand why our jumpers and throwers are so eager to go out," the seasoned administrator said. He said that participating in state meets and national championships is now mandatory and AFI has even set qualifying standards for its important domestic events. AFI has also started the process of registering coaches to track which athletes are being trained by whom. "Some of these coaches are into manipulation, they encourage doping. They are also changing their wards from one training centre to another by taking money," said Bhanot. AFI chief coach Radhakrishan Nair said coaches have to be very sure of periodisation. "In the lead-up to the Paris Olympics, we had some wonderful performances. For example, Jeswin jumped 8.47m and Praveen did 17.37m. Going by their performance as a coach I would feel that at the Olympics, the jumpers would do better but we all know what happened in Paris," said the chief coach. "So we should have a combined plan. We can't just send our athletes to compete in events abroad without a plan. The stakeholders have to justify why they are participating. Recent studies show there is no one method of periodization. Next season we have CWG and Asian Games, and we need to sit together and chart out which events we need to give importance to and accordingly set training plans," he said.

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