KOCHI/Kozhikode: With Rio 2016 coming to an end, the stark fact remains that India as a whole has had a great fall in the Olympics medal hunt. Kerala’s contribution to the debacle is not inconsequential as out of the 117 athletes who lined up behind the tri-colour in Rio, 11 were from Kerala. Eight out of the lot were new to the stage and that was a record for Kerala in terms of the number of Olympians participating in a single Games. Competing in his third successive Olympics, Triple Jumper Renjith Maheswary was the senior-most. Indian hockey captain P.R. Sreejesh and 800m runner Tintu Luka had experienced it four years ago in London.
The first-timers were Mohammed Anas, Jinson Johnson, Kunhu Muhammed, Thonakal Gopi, Anilda Thomas, O.P. Jaisha, Jisna Mathew and Sajan Prakash. Considering that only six Kerala athletes had qualified for London 2012, the improvement was a great leap. However, it could be argued that barring marathoner Gopi and swimmer Sajan, every other Kerala athlete cut a sorry figure at the Games. Gopi did a personal best of 2:15:25 to finish a creditable 25th in marathon while Sajan, who had qualified for the Games after becoming the first Indian to clock under two minutes in men’s 200m butterfly, came close to bettering his mark with a 1:59.37 finish.
Realistically speaking, nobody was expected to win a medal, though Sreejesh and his hockey team that had secured a historic sliver in Champions Trophy quite recently had a chance. It wasn’t to be as they crashed out in the quarterfinal stage, but having made an improvement from a last finish in 2012. The curious case of the 4X400m relay teams is baffling. The men’s team comprising Kunhu Muhammed and Anas was disqualified in the heats and it wasn’t any better showing by the women’s team featuring Tintu and Anilda, with Jisna on standby that ranked a dismal seventh in its heats and did not advance.
Jaisha has complained of not receiving water or health drinks during the gruesome marathon race. The 33-year-old struggled and collapsed upon finishing at 2:47:19 and her sad story paints a clear picture of just how India was treated (allegedly) by its own administration. For national record holder Tintu Luka, who had reached the semi-final four years ago, it was yet another occasion when she had to drag herself across the finish. Athens Olympics participant K.M. Binu has not been able to digest the fact that a majority of the athletes had given their best performances just before the Games, only to falter at the stage where it matters.
“When an athlete performs so well before the Games, naturally you expect better from him or her,” said Binu. “Except Gopi, no other Kerala track & field athlete gave a performance that the stage demanded. Maybe they got nervous at the biggest stage,” says the former 400m national champion. But Olympians Anju Bobby George and Mercy Kuttan have refused to buy the stage-fright argument. “We are talking about professionals here going for the biggest event and stage fright is just a silly argument,” says Mercy Kuttan, the 400m specialist who competed in Seoul 1988. Having been to Athens and Beijing and given some of India’s finest moments in women’s long jump, Anju Bobby George doesn’t seem to differ.
“It is all about our policy and mentality,” bemoans Anju. “We must build a sports culture. It has to start from school level and children should be encouraged to take up sports as a career, not for just a government job.” Former long jump national record holder T.C. Yohannan doesn’t hide his disappoint over Renjith Maheswary’s triple jump performance. “I had high expectations from the boy,” said Yohannan. “He did 17.30 last month and he does over a metre less at the stage where it matters? It is unacceptable.” Yohannan has questioned the logic behind sending athletes for exposure a couple of months prior to the Olympics. “They have to compete regularly, not a few months before the Games. If the idea is to improve and do well in the next Olympics, the process must start now and not just a year before 2020,” said Yohannan.
Mercy Kuttan says that the country cannot point fingers at lack of facilities. “Now we have facilities but maybe we must improve in areas of sports medicine and coach education because these things matter,” says Mercy. “And empowering coaches is equally important,” adds Anju Bobby George. “Sadly, our coaches have no exposure. They should be in the know of the latest techniques. They should be given international-level training along with our athletes. There should be good support staff. Without all these, there will not be any improvement in the results,” she says.
‘Go for Gold’: A broken promise
A project titled 'Go for Gold' that was claimed as a mission to win a track & field medal in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro was launched by the previous LDF government in January 2011. Five years down the road, the games in Rio are over, but the ‘Go for Gold’ project remains a promise hastily made. As part of the project, an ‘Elite Athletes Training Centre’ was set up at the Lakshmibai National College of Physical Education at Karyavattom in Thiruvananthapuram.
Though Mohammed Anas and Anilda Thomas, who were part of the Indian team in Rio, are claimed as products of the scheme, its custodians have conceded that the mission had failed to live up to its billing. “Maybe the project is now like a glorified sports hostel and it is far from being elite,” said Kerala State Sports Council president T.P. Dasan. It was launched during the first term in office of Mr. Dasan.
“It needs a revamp and we are planning to upgrade it into a research centre. There will be an administrative meeting of the council on August 31 where we’ll take up the matter,” said Mr. Dasan. The plight of the scheme is attributed to the change of government after the launch and the untimely demise (in February 2011) of iconic long jumper Suresh Babu, who was named as its technical director.
During the launch, then sports minister M. Vijayakumar had said that 30 athletes would be accommodated at EATC initially. Foreign coaches and exposure trips were also planned. The government had sanctioned Rs 31 lakh for the implementation of the project through to the next three years. But it lost its prominence in no time and right now the strength of the EATC is just 15. Athletes are given training kits worth '2000 a year, which is quite modest and far from the ‘elite’ standards advertised. Moreover, no athlete turned up for selection trials that were held recently.
