Athletics Federation Of India Conceptualising Robust Monitoring System To Enhance Performance
With the Asian and Commonwealth Games lined up next year, the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) is planning to implement a "robust monitoring system" to enhance the performance of its athletes and increase the number of medals. Indian track and field athletes have traditionally done well at the Asian Games and the AFI wants to take that success a few notches higher at the 2026 continental showpiece in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan and also improve the tally in the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
AFI has been encouraged by the fact that nearly 11 months after the decentralisation of the national coaching camps post the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, the overall results showed marked improvement at the Asian Championships in South Korea last month and the domestic competitions.
AFI spokesperson Adille Sumariwalla said there were fears that the decentralised training model could be counterproductive, but, on the contrary, there have been a lot of positives.
"There was apprehension of doping and not-so-encouraging performance as top athletes were training across the country at different centres after decentralisation. But both the issues were successfully tackled due to a good monitoring system," said Sumariwalla, World Athletics vice-president, during a meeting with government and private entities on the successful decentralisation training model, on Friday.
"The national team finished second with 24 medals, eight of them gold behind China in the medal tally in the continental meet. Several national records were also improved in Gumi (Asian Championships), which augurs well for the future," he added.
He urged the stakeholders to work together for the common good of athletics.
"There is a big pool of over 1,000 athletes, including elite training across various centres. All the stakeholders, including departments and private entities, should work in tandem for holistic development of track and field in the country." He asked the stakeholders to strictly follow AFI guidelines on annual competition calendar to give more opportunities to promising athletes.
"Domestic competition has become more competitive. AFI has also introduced regional competitions. Private institutions and government departments should encourage athletes to compete on home ground rather than send athletes abroad to compete in low key events," he added.
On the doping menace, Sumariwalla urged the stakeholders to stay vigilant.
"AFI has no needle policy and zero tolerance to doping. But accountability of the officials/coaches at the district/state level whose athletes test positive for performance enhancing drugs should be fixed. Strict punishment will act as a deterrent," he added.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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