After hockey, no representation from Karnataka in track & field events at Tokyo Olympics

The 26-member athletics team, which was announced by the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) on Monday, expectedly didn’t feature any athlete from Karnataka. The withdrawal of two-time Olympian and Asian Games medallist M R Poovamma from the national camp last week due to an injury, had all but ended the slim hopes of Karnataka’s representation in the Tokyo Games-bound Indian athletics squad.

It’s a new low for a state, which had at least one athlete qualifying for the track and field events since the 2000 Sydney Olympics, that once prided over its world-class athletes.

Discus thrower Vikas Gowda, who trained in the US, has been the flag-bearer for the Karnataka in the last three Olympics along with heptathletes Pramila Aiyappa (2000, 2008) and JJ Shobha (2004), quartermilers Poovamma MR (2008, 2016) and Ashwini Akkunji (2016). With most of them having retired, the future of Karnataka athletics looks bleak unless some drastic measures are taken to address the situation.

Read | AFI names 26-member squad for Tokyo Olympic Games

At the recently concluded Inter-Karnataka Athletics Championships held in Patiala, which also served as the last Olympic qualifying event, 18-year-old Priya Mohan from Karnataka emerged winner in the 400 meters event. Though the young quatermiler out-performed the rest of the field in the competition, she wasn’t considered for the trials to pick women runners for the 4x400 mixed relay team for not being a national camper.

Ashwini Nachappa, a former international athlete and Olympian said that it is time for the people who manage the sport to take responsibility for this debacle. “Despite more money and awareness over the past few years we have reached a new low rather than improving. It’s a reflection point for the administration,” she said.

“Unless programmes are created to ensure that the base of the pyramid is large for more and more participation and talent to emerge, we will continue in this rut. There needs to be fierce competition within the universities and Karnataka championships to make it to the national level or beyond without which the path we are headed towards looks bleak,” explained Ashwini.

A Rajavelu, Karnataka Athletics Association (KAA) secretary, cited Covid-19 pandemic as one of the main reasons for hampering preparations that led to athletes’ underperformance. “It was unfortunate for one of our best, Poovamma, to suffer an injury at such a crucial time,” he pointed out. “There were three other prospects - KR Jeevan (400m), B Chethan (high jump) and S Lokesh (long jump) - who were affected by the pandemic one way or the other and could not produce the kind of performances they are capable of,” he reasoned.

Well-known athletics coach VR Beedu, however, stressed the importance of not pinning it down to which Karnataka an athlete belongs to, and instead look at the bigger picture.

“There might not be a representation this time, but that should not be the reason for anybody to feel disheartened. There is immense talent here,” he offered.

Another sport considered Karnataka’s stronghold, hockey, doesn’t have any player from the Karnataka in the 16-member national squad for the Olympics. With the experienced striker SV Sunil having been ignored, Karnataka have drawn blank here too from having sent four players for 2016 Rio Olympics.

So far only Fouaad Mirza (equestrian), Aditi Ashok (golf) and Srihari Nataraj (swimming) have qualified for Tokyo from Karnataka.