In his first official visit to a member country after assuming office in August, world athletics body IAAF chief Sebastian Coe on Monday asked India to promote track and field sport at the school level if it wants to excel at the international stage.
Coe on Monday attended executive committee meeting of Athletics Federation of India on his two-day visit to the country.
Asked what India can learn from Jamaica and Kenya which have become world's top athletics countries, 59-year-old Coe picked the strong tradition of track and field at the schools in these two countries.
"One of the most important ingredients is strong presence and quality of track and field in schools. In Jamaica and Kenya, there is a vibrant presence of track and field in schools. India can do the same," Coe said. "I have visited Jamaica many times and 50,000 people would watch school and college level championships there. One of the things I want to do as IAAF President is to sign MoUs with education ministers of countries to include track and field programmes in schools," said the Briton.
Coe also said that India will have to work to attract corporate sponsorships to raise the profile of the sport in the country. "(Proposed) Indian Athletics league seems interesting if you have to sponsors coming. Some of the world's biggest MNCs are in India and you need to engage with them," he said.
Athletics was hit hard by allegations of widespread doping in recent reports by Sunday Times in london and German broadcaster ARD, but Coe defended his sport. "I am not in a position to respond to these external reports. It's a technical and complicated area and WADA is looking into the issue. But every sport has issues. Our sport tested samples more than any other sport in the world. But athletics is not just about dope testing. There are challenges and we can improved upon them. Our aim is to protect clean athletes,” he said.