Abhshek Purohit chats up with AFI Secretary CK Valson about association’s stand on doping, comeback routes of dope-flunked athletes and recent performances of Indian athletes. Excerpts
Is the AFI happy with India’s performance in the recently concluded Asian Athletics ChampionshipsIJ
Yes, we’re happy with the performance. But, as you know, we had expected much more from some of the bigger known players. We are slightly disappointed with Renjith Maheswary finishing second by just a cm. And same in the case with Sudha Singh and Tintu luka. But, overall it's a good performance considering that a lot of youngsters performed brilliantly. Then our relay team was brilliant. Then, there were many athletes who were piped at the end by their opponents and have finished fourth or fifth with a very improved performance. So, it's a good all-round effort from our boys.
Doping returned to haunt India just a day before the championships with shot putter P Udaya laxmi found positive for banned substance.
We’re making efforts. We’ve extended our support to the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA). We’ve good support of NADA as well for free and fair probe. We’ve alerted everyone to get rid of this. Earlier, NADA used to test mainly during competitions but now they are having regular checks during regular training as well. Awareness about this menace has grown among the athletes as well. We’ve good coordination with NADA. We are optimistic of avoiding it completely.
Recently, the likes of Ashwini Akkunji & Co have completed their serving period. Has AFI planned anything for their comebacksIJ
No, not yet. They may be training somewhere. But, we don't have any idea of it. Regarding their comebacks, it is simple that they are now free to compete in events and we don't have any problem with that. The relay team has qualified for the World Championships and no one going to replace them. They have to perform and show that they can replace the current lot. There are tournaments coming up like the National Open Athletics Championships to be held in September in Ranchi. There are good tournaments in the coming months. So, they can comeback.
What are the future programmesIJ
After this, some athletes will try to qualify for World Championships. Then looking ahead, apart from the domestic season, we have Asian Games and Commonwealth Games coming up and for that we are planning accordingly under the youth development programme.