New Delhi: Race walking is one of the few good medal-winning events for the National Games hosts Uttarakhand, but it has surprisingly been left out of the athletics programme.
The decision of the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) has come as a jolt for race walkers and hosts Uttarakhand which is considered the cradle of the sport in India. In the previous two National Games in Gujarat and Goa, Uttarakhand won five medals from the sport.
It is learned that the Uttarakhand Olympic Association and State’s department of sport, which is involved in organizing the National Games (Jan 28-Feb 14), have written to AFI to reinstate race walk for the Games.
“We were preparing for the event when suddenly we came to know that race walking will not be held. We are disappointed because the National Games is happening at our home and we were looking forward to winning medals here. We have good race walkers in both men and women events,” said Paris Olympian Suraj Panwar who won gold in Goa National Games in 20km race walk.
Paramjeet Singh Bisht said since the 35km race walk was not part of the Goa Games they were focusing on 20km. In Gujarat, both 35km and 20km race walking competitions were held, while in Goa only 20km events took place. “We had doubts whether 35km will be held in Uttarakhand but now we hear even 20km has been taken off and that was surprising,” said Bisht who competed at the Paris Olympics.
AFI has informed the Games Technical Conduct Committee that “after careful consideration, the technical committee concluded that including the race walk event would not be in the best interest of the top athletes.”
It is learned that during the AFI AGM in Chandigarh, the technical committee while brainstorming on India’s performance at Paris Olympics, decided to enter race walkers in selected competitions so that they can achieve their peak in major international competitions.
This year, the focus will be to get the best at the Asian Championships in Korea in May and the World Championships in Tokyo in September. The performance of India’s five race walkers (20km and mixed marathon) at Olympics left much to be desired.
However, omission of the discipline from the National Games has not gone down well with the hosts. An official said it is a sport where the state can win medals and it should be reinstated. “We have asked AFI to reinstate the sport. The Services team that has several race walkers is also trying to convince AFI,” the official told HT.
A coach said managing the peak of an athlete is the job of national coaches. “The importance of every competition is different. It is all about how you train and what you are expecting from a particular competition. Excluding an event is not the solution. If you want you can keep the elite athletes away but there are so many promising youngsters who need domestic competitions. This kind of decision is not in the best interest of the sport.”
