Sport - Sports : General

Chaos rules

— Photo: Vivek Bendre

STAR ATTRACTION: Commonwealth Youth Games mascot Jigarr entertains participants during a cultural programme on the eve of the Games’ inauguration.

Pune: If the first day, first show is any indication, Indian sportspersons, coaches and officials at the 3rd Commonwealth Youth Games will require a huge dose of persistence and patience to overcome organisational glitches and concentrate on the task at hand. Accreditation was the first of the numerous hurdles they had to negotiate before being allowed to enter the Athletes Village.

Athletes and coaches endured agonising hours at the accreditation centre coinciding with evening training sessions on track, including national coach Suresh Babu, getting a hang of bottlenecks in the process including online data vanishing into thin air. Officials from different disciplines engaged in shouting matches with key CYG co-ordinators as the deadline for technical committee meetings came and went without accreditation process making headway.

There crux of the matter was entry into the Shiv Chhatrapati Sports complex, the nerve centre of the Games, without the mandatory accreditation cards dangling down the neck for gate security to check and wave ahead. Trained to obey orders, the men in uniform stuck to their task diligently. Athletics being the largest chunk in the Indian contingent, the problems were many forcing national coach Babu to use his persuasive skills with security personnel at the gate to break rules and allow young athletes onto the track for training over the last two weeks.

He said: “We submitted the names of athletes and written request in advance, but nothing happened. So I talkedo the security people and make them understand the need to grant entry for young athletes into the complex so that they can train for the Games.” It is learnt that the Indian officials and coaches are paying for the bus service out of their own pocket for two trips from temporary accommodation at Pearl Apartments to the training centre and back daily for last fortnight.

Information about Indian participants in nine disciplines on show at the CYG is a mystery a day prior to the opening ceremony on Sunday.

Tennis is the first sport on the opening day’s programme and inquiries with officials at the tennis centre revealed that Yuki Bhambri and Kyra Shroff will spearhead India’s challenge in men’s and women’s singles respectively. Sudanwa Sitaram, Poojarshri, Vijayant Malik, Akash Wagh, Rashmi Teltumbe and Tanvi Shah are the others primed for action on Sunday.

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