Athletics: AFI to fix qualification standards for CWG, Asiad

After a mediocre performance in the recent World Championships, the Athletics Federation of India has decided to focus on a few select events for next year’s Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia (in April), and the Asian Games in Jakarta in August.

“We will give special attention to certain disciplines in which we have good pool of talented athletes in both men and women categories such as javelin throw, 400m, 4x400m relay and the long jump for the CWG and the Asiad,” AFI President Adille Sumariwalla said.

After a mediocre performance in the recent World Championships, the Athletics Federation of India has decided to focus on a few select events for next year’s Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia (in April), and the Asian Games in Jakarta in August.

“We will give special attention to certain disciplines in which we have good pool of talented athletes in both men and women categories such as javelin throw, 400m, 4x400m relay and the long jump for the CWG and the Asiad,” the AFI President Adille Sumariwalla has said, according to the association’s release.

The AFI’s committee for planning, coaching, monitoring and implementation, which met recently in Patiala, has also decided to have qualification standards for the CWG and the Asian Games which it said would be announced well in advance before the two majors.

Sumariwalla also expressed his disappointment over the performance of Indians at the Worlds and mentioned that the focus of the AFI would be on the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

“The AFI is not satisfied with the performance of most of the athletes at the Worlds. The performance of our athletes was poor.”

The AFI’s Planning Committee also discussed ways to closely monitor the working of its coaches at the various national camps and has also decided to provide a list of athletes training outside national camps to the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA).

The AFI proposed calendar of events has the season opening on February 27 with the Indian Grand Prix in Patiala followed by the Federation Cup at the same venue from March 5 to 8. These two events will be held the CWG. Two more Indian GPs (July 6 & 8 in Chennai, Bengaluru) and the Inter-State Nationals (July 15-18, venue not decided) will be conducted before the Asiad.