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Unusually, India announces plans for 2012 Olympics already
Maken says foreign help would sharpen India’s skill in 16 disciplines
Nikhil M Ghanekar
New Delhi
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National sports camps for Olympics announced by Ajay Maken |
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Minister of Sports Ajay Maken is apparently no mood to waste time like some of his predecessors might have. On the eve of completing a month in office as the sports minister, Maken held a press conference on 3 March in New Delhi to broadly announce plans for the 2012 London Olympics.
He said medal prospects in major disciplines would be funded by the National Sports Development Fund. Maken also announced a time-bound training programme for 16 key disciplines in the Olympics, to be monitored by specially appointed apex and steering committees.
The disciplines are swimming, archery, athletics, badminton, boxing, gymnastics, hockey, judo, rowing, sailing, shooting, table-tennis, taekwondo, tennis, weightlifting and wrestling.
A schedule of camps for these disciplines was released, most of which would be based in Delhi. Other locations include Patiala, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Gandhinagar. The camps would commence in a couple of days, the minister said.
From the list of venues assigned for the camps, it appears the minister and his team is firm on using the infrastructure built in New Delhi for Commonwealth Games 2010. The minister has set up a committee of eminent sportspersons like Baichung Bhutia, PT Usha, Mary Kom and others to look into the upkeep of CWG stadiums and to make a plan to utilise them in the best possible way for sportspersons. This committee is set to submit its assessment report on 7 March.
When TEHELKA asked the minister about increasing doping cases, Joint Secretary Rahul Bhatnagar said, “During the National Games in Ranchi, around 300 samples were collected of which 200 were tested by the National Anti Doping Agency (NADA) and a report on the remaining 100 is awaited. Nine athletes tested positive for disciplines like athletics, rowing, cycling, basketball, taekwondo and cycling. Methylhexanamine and Stanozolol were the two infamous sports drugs found in the tests.”
Maken added that the new national sports bill has been drafted to curb doping. He said that the when the bill becomes law, it would weed out doping. But Maken had nothing to say on how and why doping is still rampant across disciplines.
On the allocation of Rs 1,121 crore to the sports ministry this year, the minister said, “The budgetary allocation is disappointing but it would not hamper our preparation for the 2012 London Olympics. We are firm on our plans and the process would be transparent.”
nikhil@tehelka.com |
