AFI's priority list: Increased scrutiny on athletes competing overseas, food supplements

Indian Express

a day ago

The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) has advised private players, who manage athletes in the new decentralised training model, to refrain from sending them to low-key overseas competitions.
Nearly a year after the decentralisation of the national coaching camps, post 2024 Paris Olympic Games, the AFI said there was significant increase in meet records, a jump in the number of athletes who qualified for the Asian Championships and a spike in the medal count at the continental event.
However, there have been teething problems as the training centres increased from three to 18, including those run by JSW, Reliance, Army, Navy, Airforce, state governments and the six National Centre of Excellence.
'The decentralised training model has worked but there are things we have to improve. It is difficult to manage athletes in the decentralised system. We have put restrictions on sending the athletes abroad for training as well as competitions. It has become a fashion for coaches to go aboard and they take athletes also. We should sit and discuss if an athlete should go abroad or not. There are foreign coaches who feel it is too hot in the Indian summer and they want to go abroad. So they plan a trip to Europe. We have to be very careful,' AFI's planning commission chairman Lalith Bhanot said.
He was speaking at a one-day meeting in New Delhi with all stakeholders, including government and private entities, on the decentralisation training model. Top athletes like javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra and 100 metre hurdler Jyothi Yarraji competing overseas are justified because they don't have quality competitors in the country, but others should not rush to compete abroad just for the sake of it, Bhanot said.
'There are some athletes who are outstanding, they need to train abroad, like in the case of Neeraj. I can understand if Jyothi is going abroad because there is no competition here. But I don't understand why our javelin throwers have to go abroad when there are 10 competitions here and there are 10 athletes crossing 80 metres. In 400 metres, if an athlete is participating in a race where the timings (of competitors) are below 45 (seconds) I can understand. But if they have to participate in a race where the athletes are running 47-plus, why should they go. What is the purpose of sending an athlete for a competition which is of very low standard,' Bhanot said.
The AFI planning commission chairman also gave the example of Sachin Yadav, the Asian Championships silver medalist. 'There are agents who fixed two competitions for him in Finland. Proposal went to the TOPS that he will travel to Finland. How can TOPS say no when he has thrown 85 metres. I told him, you train here, there is no need to go anywhere. The agent started calling me. The agent will get money if he participates. He is a new boy, he has no pressure at all. I have seen him throw 90 metres in training. Moreover, the coaches are also interested in going abroad,' Bhanot added.
The AFI is also keeping a close watch on the dependence on supplements by athletes and has also told the Sports Authority of India that most junior athletes do not need supplements. When it comes to senior athletes, the AFI plans to short-list genuine suppliers and only provide supplements to the top senior athletes.
'Most of the food supplements we get now are less about supplements and more about doping risk,' Bhanot said. He also said that there were coaches who sold supplements meant for athletes in the open market.
An Army coach at the National Institute of Sports in Patiala was fired after he was caught selling supplements. 'There is a coach who took food supplements in a tempo and sold it. There were so many food supplements boxes in his room in NIS Patiala that he didn't have a place to sleep. It is a wrong concept that all athletes need supplements. We have told SAI that juniors do not need food supplements. It is a fashion that has come in from the gyms,' Bhanot said.
AFI president Adille Sumariwalla said that most supplements get contaminated when they are imported and then repacked in India. 'In India, when it is repacked they add anabolic steroids so more people will buy it. It is a complex issue.'