Fed Cup Athletics: Absentee stars likely to face music

MANGALURU: It was one of the rare National Athletics Championships that was hosted with a big budget of Rs one crore but as the curtains came down on the 19th Federation Cup here what was glaring was the absence of some of the top athletes - including the likes of Mandeep Kaur, Ashwini Akkunji and Renjith Maheswary - who all skipped the meet despite it being the selection trials for next month's Asian Athletics meet.
When asked about the pullouts, an Athletics Federation of India (AFI) official admitted that it was a matter of concern that the top athletes chose to skip the selection meet. "We are going to view this seriously as it took the sheen out of the meet. There is a possibility that they may not be picked for the Asian meet in Wuhan. Had there been any private sponsors they could have even dragged us to the court," he said.
Last year, the AFI had come down heavily on those who had skipped selection meets and 800m runner Tintu Luka was not picked in the Indian squad for the Asian Grand Prix. If hurdler Siddanth Thingalaya set the best example by coming down from his training base in Los Angeles, USA to compete here, 400m runners Ashwini, Mandeep along with Priyanka Panwar and Juana Murmu chose to look the other way as they skipped the meet citing flimsy reasons.
The other big stars who conveniently ignored the National Championship were Seema Punia, Krishna Poonia, Renjith Maheswary, OP Jaisha, Sudha Singh and Lalita Babar. Meanwhile, a top coach alleged that the AFI has different yardsticks for different athletes. "Those close to the power wielders don't bother about selection meets as they know they will be selected. For the rest, irrespective of how good they are, they have to prove themselves again and again to get selected, the coach told TOI.
One athlete in women's pole vault!
The state government used its funds to procure the latest equipment that included two pole vault landing areas worth Rs 16 lakh. But there was only Tamil Nadu's VS Surekha to compete in the women's section while the men's field saw a slightly better turnout.
There were eight entries in women's discus throw but only two turned up. It was the same case in women's shot put as only two competed of the seven entries. The men's hammer throw saw only three contestants after eight athletes pulled out while in women's triple jump the competition had four athletes.
"For every event we had to buy equipment with a second kept as backup. It was disappointing that there was not enough competitors for the meet in several events. This took away the sanctity of the meet which was billed as the selection trials. Hopefully, our athletes will make the best use of the new equipment," a state government official said.
Local officials disappointed
Meanwhile, a top official of the local organizing committee also complained about the big number of pull outs and the AFI's inability to ensure that there were enough athletes to compete.
"We are very disappointed with the AFI. This is not the way to treat a national championship. We did everything to make this meet a success but the Federation failed in getting the athletes to compete," the official said.
"In many events the heats had to be cancelled and there were quite a few events which saw participation from very few athletes. We had teams from most of the states and several institutions participating but why can't the AFI ensure that there is enough participation," he said.