Boxed in by BMI, national players fight to stay fit

BHOPAL: Worried over a tendency among sportspersons to work on skills even at the expense of fitness, sports department has shifted its gaze to unfit players. The players, especially medal winner boxers, wrestlers, shooters, karate and judo and water sportsmen have increasingly come in for greater attention of experts.
"Of late, the department carried out a random test to plumb fitness level of players.In each discipline, around 30-40 players were made to undergo Body Mass Index (BMI) tests. Between 5% and 8% athletes were found either overweight or underweight," said a senior official. The results came as a jolted for decision makers, he said. "On the basis of findings, sports department has drawn up a list of players and the areas they lack fitness in," he said. Now, the department has started conducting special tests for each player. Quickly realising what it is up against, the department lost no time in appointing a nutritionist and a psychologist to make them fit for national and international competition," he said.
Refusing to divulge more details, the official said, "The department has given players two months to raise bar on their fitness. They will be made to take BMI test again to find out if things have improved.
"Results are important. Few players were found with 28 BMI, which is quite high. Several were found with only 15 BMI. Ideally, the BMI should be around 20. Now, we can help our players to perform better as we know where the problem lies," said the official.