American Coach Jim Holt, the gymnastic selector in India for upcoming Commonwealth Games (CWG) feels Indian gymnasts will have a tough time in this international sports event. Comparing the local gymnasts with English and Scottish players he said only three Indians have the chances of grabbing medals in the gymnastic sport in CWG.
Holt who is in Jharkhand for the first time to select best five males and females for CWG from the 54th Senior Artistic Gymnastic Championship scheduled at Khelgaon's Ganpat Rai Indoor Stadium from June 3 to 5 in an interaction with The Pioneer said, "Three Indians gymnasts namely Ashish Kumar from Railways, Dipa Karmakar from Tripura and Rakesh Patra from Services have realistic chances of performing better at Commonwealth Games 2014."
"Indian gymnasts are excellent as individual performers but cannot be the same while representing as a team," he added. XX Commonwealth Games are to be conducted in Glasglow from July 23 to August 3. Favoring Holt, DK Rathore, Kumar's coach cum first Indian gymnast to get a Dronacharya award said,"Ashish and Rakesh deserve their selection in CWG 2014 since their skills are improving day after day in the ongoing India camp for this global sports meet at New Delhi."
The three players seemed totally concentrated in their event during the practice session for the mentioned National meet in the state capital. Highlighting on the uniqueness of these three players, Rakesh's coach Ashok Mishra said that the particular gymnasts are "all rounder". Holt will be finalizing the names of the 10 players for CWG by Friday. "This National tournament is obviously a crucial time for Indian gymnasts," he said.
Notably, such a kind of artistic gymnastic is being held for the first time ever in the state. Jharkhand Gymnastic Association Organizing Secretary Dr Rajesh Gupta informed that he and his members had to put hard efforts to manage the budget of this sports meet. "We requested the State Sports Minister Geetashree Oraon to support us. Unfortunately, she just gave us the permission to utilize the hostels, VVIP guest house and this stadium of this Khelgaon Mega Sports Complex. The entire bill for the utilization will be given by us," he said.
Due to this reason the national level coaches and judges from around 25 teams here are accommodated with the players in the hostels. "The bathrooms are dirty. We do not even have a bed to sleep," complained some of the national judges. An international female judge said, "The Air Conditioner of my room in the VVIP guest house is not functioning."