Tuesday, Aug 20, 2002
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Sports : General
By M.R. Praveen Chandran
``The standard has definitely improved. It is good to see States like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand do well and win gold medals at the National-level competitions,'' said Maradi S. Chandrasekhar, the secretary general of Taekwondo Federation of India. Though Taekwondo is an Olympic discipline it is not a priority sport as far as the Union Sports Ministry is concerned. Mr. Chandrasekhar feels the 14th Asian Games in Busan will be crucial for the future of this sport in the country. ``We are taking part in Asian Games for the first time. Though Asian standards are pretty high we are expecting at least two medals and our assessment is based on the good performance by the juniors in recent times. We have pinned our hopes on Surender Bandari (fly weight) and Mohammed Imran (bantam weight),'' said Mr. Chandrasekhar. Mohammed Irfan (Fin), Sanjeev Kumar (feather), Praban Saikia (light), Vishwa Deepak Jalan (welter), G. Suresh (middle), Seema Deeswal (bantam), Nano Devi (fly) and Rani Bala (feather) are the other Indians taking part in the Asian Games. The 10-member Indian team is currently undergoing rigorous training at the SAI centre in Bangalore under Kim Dong Hyun, who is a former Korean national champion. The presence of Korean coaches has done a world of good for the Indians. The junior Indian team won two silver medals in Asian junior championship held in Chinese Taipei early this year and at the Asian championship in Jordan a few Indians made it into the quarterfinals and with some luck would have won medals. Lee Jae Ku and Kim Hong Jo are the two other coaches who are working with the Indian team. Lee Jae Ku is in charge of the juniors who will be taking part in the World championships to be held in Greece. ``We should concentrate on juniors who are giving us better results. The world championships will be a good exposure to the youngsters," says Chandrasekhar. ``The foreign coaches have polished the techniques and have imparted a work ethic that was new to the Indians. But despite this we have to improve a lot in endurance and infrastructure,'' the TFI secretary general added. The TFI is facing a huge task to improve the infrastructure and find necessary funds for running the sport. Out of the 32 affiliated units under TFI only a few can boast of having competition mats. The cost of foreign coaches is met by TFI through money collected from sponsors and well-wishers as the help from Government is minimal. Another problem hampering the progress of this sport is lack of trained coaches. Most of the States do not have qualified coaches to train youngsters. TFI has now realised the problem and is now conducting a six-week certificate course in coaching. The Korean coaches are sent out regularly to different States to conduct coaching camps and to improve the coaching standards. A good show at the Asian Games will give taekwondo the much-needed thrust and will hopefully change the attitude of powers that be towards this sport.
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