P T Usha to train athletes in Gujarat

Accordingly, Usha would conduct a selection meet in selected cities in Gujarat targeting talents in the age group of 11 to 14 from November 8 to 14. The selected ones would be initially admitted to the Sports Complex at Vadodara, where they would be trained under Usha.

“We are planning to recruit 40 students for training. I hope we would be able to find good talents in Gujarat. If necessary, selected athletes would be brought to her school in Kozhikode for special training,’’ she said.

Usha School of Athletics has been established in 2002 with the intention of giving expert training for talents at a younger age. Tintu Luka, who had won silver in 800-m race in the recently concluded Asian Games, is her illustrious disciple. Usha has been training Luka with the aim of winning an Olympics medal, which she had lost in 1984 for hundredth of a second.

Recently, Usha has been lamenting over poor financial patronage for her school, which has her husband V Sreenivasan as treasurer.
She said her home state had failed to fully tap her service. Regarding the development of the school, government is interested only in conducting discussions. What we need is prompt decisions to harvest result, she said.

Now, adding to the woes of the school situated near a proposed industrial park in a Kozhikode village, local people have launched an agitation alleging unscientific construction of the synthetic track.

However, school secretary A Ajanachandran said the track is being constructed scientifically with drainage facility. The issue of flooding has been created by the unscientific construction of a road by the Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC).

The Usha School is situated at land once acquired by the government for industrial development. The adjacent plots are owned by the KSIDC.