Bedrosian back as India coach

Romanian Bedros Bedrosian has returned as coach of the Indian jumpers preparing for the big meets in the coming season.

Bedrosian was instrumental in the progress of Ankit Sharma, who qualified for the Rio Olympic Games last year with a leap of 8.19 metres in Almaty. But the Romanian did not return after the Games and he was reported to be unhappy with the Athletics Federation of India on lack of clarity over his contract extension. The 62-year-old former triple jumper, who arrived in Bhubaneswar on Friday night, said he had been awarded a contract till the 2020 Olympic Games.

Ankit, after his big leap at Almaty, had flopped with a 7.67M jump at Rio, failing to qualify for the final. Recently, he had expressed his desire to have Bedrosian back as coach.

“He is a good jumper and will improve further. In fact, we have a good group of jumpers now,”

Bedrosian told DH after watching the qualifying round of the long jump on Saturday.

The Romanian seemed particularly impressed with Siddharth Mohan Naik, who qualified for the final with a 7.39M jump. “He is good, he has got that explosive quality,” he said.

Bedrosian plans to have his base in Thiruvananthapuram, where he had trained his wards during his previous stint. “It is a good place to train long jumpers,” he said.