Athletics Federation of India president Adille Sumariwala.
| Photo Credit: File photograph
The Athletics Federation of India (AFI)’s brainstorming assembly to formulate a strategic plan for excelling in the 2036 Olympics recognized core areas which wanted consideration and the need to create a pleasant ecosystem for the athletes, coaches and different stakeholders.
The AFI has determined to streamline the calendar to make sure that the athletes could have sufficient home competitions in order that they will peak on the proper time earlier than main competitions. The AFI can even see that the athletes get sufficient overseas publicity.
Speaking to The Hindu after the conclusion of the five-day assembly, the AFI president Adille Sumariwala stated there can be two level technique beginning with the junior programme – primarily the National Inter-district Junior Athletic Meet (NIDJAM) and the Elite programme.
The AFI has determined to decentralise the nationwide camps after the Paris Olympics and on the similar time will permit establishments like Railways, Army, Navy, Police and academies run by JSW and Reliance Foundation to conduct camps at their respective centres.
“We are changing the structure of the national camps, allowing it to spread to other regions. Instead of holding a centralized national camp with an intake of 150 athletes, we want to spread it across the country.
“We will accord national camp status to training centres of institutions and academies. We will already have a monitoring cell, and we will keep a close watch on the progress of athletes attached to these centres,’’ said the AFI president.
Sumariwala said the big thrust in the coming years will be on producing more level one coaches in the country.
“We want more coaches, and we wish to produce around 40,000 level one coaches by 2036 to cater to the needs of the affiliated AFI districts. We need to educate the coaches at the junior level of the perils of overtraining, which results in burn out of athletes.
“We also need to enlighten the athletes, coaches, and others about the use of forbidden substances. During the NIDJAM meet last year we distributed 10,000 books to the participants which contained the list of banned drugs.
“We have a zero tolerance policy on use of needles and banned substances in our national camps. We have put up a system where the athletes are constantly monitored, and we periodically conduct checks on the athlete’s rooms at national camps.
“We have banned the use of food supplements in national camps. We have sought the help of NADA to test athletes taking part in district and State meets,” he added.
The affiliation in the approaching years will focus extra on sports activities science for formulating the coaching schedule and restoration technique of the athletes. The AFI can even determine choose disciplines the place the nation could have extra probabilities of successful medals on the Olympics.
“We will be concentrating on certain events, which will be selected based on the historical performances and other factors. There is no point in concentrating on 20 events at a time. We will cut to 10 or 12. Our aim will be to create a talent base which will put us in good stead for the future,” he added.
