Athletics | We have to create a pipeline from junior to senior, says AFI president Adille Sumariwalla

AFI president Adille Sumariwalla feels that at a tender age an athlete should not be doing specific work, should not be doing specialization and should not be overtraining.
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The athletics junior development programme, which was initiated in 1990 and later became the National inter-district junior athletics meet (NIDJAM) in the early 2000s, has undergone a significant change with the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) making it robust with an aim to make it a supply line and produce more champions.

As part of the revamped junior programme, the AFI organized the 2023 edition of the NIDJAM in Patna with the participation of more than 5000 athletes from over 500 districts, selected from more than a million children from across the country, competing in under-14 and under-16 boys’ and girls’ categories.

Of the 922 athletes shortlisted from Patna, 578 reported for the fortnight-long talent assessment camp conducted across six venues — Patiala, Patna, Bhopal, Trivandrum, Godhra and Lucknow — with the AFI taking care of all the expenses.

The selected names will be proposed to the Sports Authority of India (SAI) for inclusion in National Centre of Excellence (NCOE) and SAI training centres.

During the fortnight long camp, the AFI put these children through a series of tests, with Rural Electrification Corporation financially supporting these, and were examined whether they had the aptitude for sports. They were made aware of the importance of having a balanced diet and bad effects of overtraining.

“History has shown that worldwide only three per cent of under-17 world champions have made it to the seniors… We have to create a pipeline from junior to senior,” said AFI president Adille Sumariwalla.

“The whole idea is that at a tender age an athlete should not be doing specific work, should not be doing specialization and should not be overtraining. That’s where the new kids’ athletics programme comes in — to ensure at that tender age you are doing agility, flexibility, strength, motor skills by doing a large scale of activities and not a particular event. That is basically the whole idea of the junior programme.

“The AFI has a two-pronged programme — junior and elite. They go hand-in-hand because you need champions; everybody wants to become a Neeraj, a P.T. Usha. You need those champions there to emulate,” he added.

National chief coach Radhakrishnan Nair underlined the importance of such a camp. “It was mandatory for all the athletes to attend the classes in the afternoon. The emphasis in the camp was on general fitness. The youngsters were also apprised of harmful side effects of overtraining and early specialisation,” said Nair.

The AFI invited some foreign experts to share their views on the programme. Germany’s athletics expert Gunter Lange, Jamaica’s Jason Dawson and Sri Lanka’s Gen Palitha Fernando were among the foreign experts who attended the two-day review committee meeting at Patiala.

Every year the AFI will organize the NIDJAMs and will add and subtract athletes from the pool in order to keep it “active and healthy.”

Meanwhile, the AFI has appointed N. Ramesh as the junior and youth coach and is looking for a high performance director, who will be entrusted with the task of setting up a right kind of programme for the younger athletes.