AFI takes tough measures
The Hindu
Sreeshankar, Tajinder and Annu to have new coaches
They all broke national records this year but the slump in their performance at the Tokyo Olympics has forced the Athletics Federation of India to change the coaches of long jumper M. Sreeshankar, shot putter Tajinderpal Singh Toor and javelin thrower Annu Rani. “Sreeshankar’s coach, his father (former international S. Murali), had given in writing that if he did not perform at the Olympics, if he did not cross 8m, he will stop coaching him and he will listen to us and we can get him another coach, foreign coach or whatever. The first action has already been taken, we have changed his coach,” said AFI president Adille Sumariwalla after the federation’s executive council meeting in Jaipur on Monday evening. “Annu’s and Shivpal Singh’s coach Uwe Hohn (former world record holder) is also being sent home and we are looking for a foreign coach for Toor.” Two new javelin coaches will be appointed.He has worn India’s blues, albeit in an Under-19 World Cup, with K.L. Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Harshal Patel and Jaydev Unadkat as his teammates. He has proudly adorned the Lion’s Crest — the famed Mumbai cricket logo — in all three formats. He has played with Yuvraj Singh, against Virat Kohli and Rahul Dravid and has the likes of Rahul and Joe Root in his illustrious list of dismissals. He is also a software developer for an IT giant, based in California. Virtually every middle-class Indian over the last three decades at some stage dreams of being either a cricketer or an IT professional. Saurabh Netravalkar has been combining two dreams, even after relocating to USA to pursue academics at the prestigious Cornell University in 2015.
Unlike most of the Olympic-bound athletes, who opt to train abroad before the big event, boxer Amit Panghal prefers training in home conditions prior to Paris 2024. A former World championships silver medallist and a World No. 1, Panghal won the 51kg quota place in the only chance he got. He wants to follow his own plans to script success in Paris.
The other men’s semifinal Friday is Norway’s Casper Ruud, twice the runner-up in Paris — to Rafael Nadal in 2022 and to Novak Djokovic in 2023 — against Germany’s Alexander Zverev, a finalist at the 2020 U.S. Open, an Olympic gold medalist and into the final four at Roland Garros for the fourth consecutive year.