AHMEBADAD: India’s sports administrators were on Friday told that treating multi-sport events as an “outing with family” instead of being there for athletes will not be tolerated and were asked to give names for the Asian Games contingent by January 15 at a Sports Governance Conclave here.
The Conclave was attended by Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya and also featured top officials from the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) and National Sports Federations, Gujarat’s Deputy Chief Minister and Sports Minister Harsh Sanghavi and Sports Secretary Hari Ranjan Rao.
“It would be shameful if a large contingent of officials goes and not one is available when the athlete needs them. They have to be there 100 per cent of times for the athletes. Please don’t go if you think of this as an outing with relatives. We don’t need you,” Rao stated as he laid out the country’s 10-year medal strategy that has Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s approval.
“The selection criteria (both Commonwealth and Asian Games) is already out. The Organising Committee for the Asian Games in Japan has set January 30 as the deadline for submission of names.
“The IOA must have told you that you have to give names by January 15, including support staff. Are you all ready? If you don’t give names, you might miss the Games. And once you give names, you have to stick to them. Japanese are ruthless, they won’t adjust,” he added in a curt message to the present NSF officials.
India’s officialdom has often been criticised by athletes for not being available at big events even though administrators form a major chunk of contingents to big sporting events.
The Asian Games is scheduled to be held from September 19 to October 4 in Aichi-Nagoya. The Commonwealth Games is due before that in July-August.
Rao said the current medal estimate for the Asian Games stands at 111, an improvement from the best ever haul of 106 in the previous edition in Hangzhou.
However, the assessment for CWG is a modest 20-odd medals after the Glasgow Games was scaled down and major disciplines like hockey, badminton, shooting and wrestling were dropped to ensure a tight budget.
“It can go wrong or be better many times, which will require a lot of effort. CWG would be a bit of a showstopper. Three gold and 22 total medals are expected because it’s a truncated Games,” he said.
“But as we prepare, we need to train athletes on etiquette. We will be going to Japan and that is a very sensitive country on food habits, social etiquette. We can’t make even one mistake,” Rao added.
PTI