An apology called Medak STC

By Our Sports Reporter

MEDAK, JULY 13. Athletes will be prosecuted for trespassing! Well, that could be an apt sign board at the Sports Training Centre of Sports Authority of India in Medak. Such is the pitiable condition of the ground that it is fit for anything other than athletics.

Mind you, it is supposed to be a model, training centre as per the ambitious Memorandum of Understanding signed by the Sports Authority of India and the Sports Authority of Andhra Pradesh last year.

This athletics centre started functioning in November last year with a batch of 26 trainees under the supervision of a qualified and reputed NIS coach, M. Ranga Rao, with assistance from K. Kondal Rao, both from SAI. It is a different matter as to what a coach even of such calibre can do if he is given a barren piece of land rather than a full-fledged athletic stadium.

The athletes jog quite a distance to a local school which has a 300-metre track, even this is not as per the required standards (but something is better than nothing after all) to complete the formalities of training, is a sorry reflection of the so-called sports policy and its august declarations.

A pathetic sight which should serve a timely reminder to the top officials of the grim, ground realities away from the State capital. It is a classic example which illustrates the fact that there is a yawning gap between announcement of schemes and their implementation.

Interestingly, Karimnagar was the original venue for the SAAP athletic academy and most of the equipment required was available there. After the MoU, the athletes were transferred to the Medak STC, but not the equipment. It is still lying idle in Karimnagar while the athletes are left groping in the dark, wasting precious time and money.

Maybe, in this hi-tech world, the authorities are planning to hire a bullock cart to shift the equipment from one centre to the other!. Or else, it will not take full eight months for the concerned authorities to act.

The original sanctioned strength for the STC is 40 and there are still 12 vacancies for want of athletes with the required standards and norms. If the amount of money being spent on the trainees and the salaries to the staff, without bothering whether it is worth spending at all, is any indication, it demonstrates that accountability is at a premium.

As per the procedure, it is SAAP which has to provide the infrastructure, including identifying the playfield and disciplines based on their popularity in the region and the standards. Then SAI will take over complete administrative control of almost everything including spending Rs. 25 lakhs per annum on the Centre.

Well, if it fails to spur the officials to act and repair the filter plant in the Kurnool swimming pool even after more than two years, the less said the better about the Medak Centre.

Quite funnily, the officials in the SAAP proudly disclose that an amount of Rs. 8 lakhs was already sanctioned but the concerned file is in the Medak District Collectorate. If that is the case, the DSDO should be given a complete brief of the issue and ordered to pursue the matter without delay.

But, that is not to be. Everyone seems to be interested in passing the buck. Sanctioning and not releasing the amount is as good or bad as not doing anything.

Consequently, the athletes suffer. There is no track, leave alone a cinder track, as the Medak authorities have even compromised for a grass track for practice, no jump pits, throwing circles, multi-gym, weight training equipment.

What a sight it was to see two bamboos put up by Shyamsunder, a gold medalist in junior National hurdles, for practice. Well, for this young athlete there will be not be any hurdles here but once he steps on the National and international arenas, the difference will be too glaring to ignore.

It is time for all those gentlemen, who harp and bask in the now familiar theme and take pride in spending Rs. 250 crores for the National Games to be held in Hyderabad next year (originally scheduled), to act in a decisive manner and come to the rescue of these young athletes in Medak.

For the record, a fair hint of the talent available here is evident by the plain fact that 17-year-old V. Nanibabu is a long jumper who's effort recently was a creditable 6.83 m. Then you have sprinter V. Satish, S. Rajankanth (400m hurdles), Ushasri (1500 and 5000m) and Vani (hammer throw) to name a few of the many medal prospects.

Will it be an understatement to emphasise that the inept handling by the authorities who run sports in the State are effectively nipping talent in the bud with their indifference and mindless spending on schemes which don't deliver any results in the immediate future?

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