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A SAI of despair

After the hockey fiasco, gymnastics coach from Russia slams facilities at Balewadi. He will now make a formal complaint, as the Sports Authority has turned a deaf ear for 5 months`

Salil Kulkarni

Posted On Tuesday, February 09, 2010 at 12:37:05 AM

SAI has let us down. For the last 5 months, the assistant coaches and I have been regularly requesting for new equipment, but nothing has happened. The performance of the players has gone down because of this. It is really frustrating”

— Vladimir Chertkov, coach, Indian gymnastics team

It is now gymnastics which looks like it could do with a Chak De. ‘Poor and outdated’ is how India’s gymnastics coach, Vladimir Chertkov has described the equipment used by campers preparing for Commonwealth Games 2010 at Sports Complex, Balewadi.

If his concerns are anything to go by, bagging even a single medal at the Games can remain just a distant dream for the nation.

The high-performance Russian coach, who has been training with core probables for the last five months, is a frustrated man these days and the reason is Sports Authority of India’s (SAI) delay in providing new training equipment, something which the coach had been demanding since first day of the camp.

‘Equipment is too old’
According to Chertkov, the equipment —especially the vault table and the floor — are in a poor condition and too old to practice upon. If they continue to practice on the equipment, the gymnasts may suffer serious injuries, he has highlighted.

“The gymnasts need a special floor, but the surface of the one we have here is too stiff and without enough bounce. This floor is 14 years old! Same is the case with the vault table which is 17 years old.These are just not good enough to prepare on for international events.”

These equipment are just not good enough to prepare for international events,” Chertkov rued.

5 world championships in next 8 months!
The gravity of the coach’s concerns can hardly be gainsaid, especially in light of the fact that in the next eight months, the Indian team will take part five world championships of which one is the crucial Olympic qualification round.

And going by the current state of affairs, things are certainly getting tougher for our gymnasts. For the record, gymnastics is the only sport, after swimming, to have the highest number of medals on the offering and according to the Russian coach, if things don’t change, India will fail to make use of the home advantage.

‘SAI has let us down’
“SAI has let us down. For the last five months, I and the assistant coaches have been regularly requesting for the new equipment, but nothing has happened. The performance of the players has gone down because of this. It’s really frustrating,” the coach explained.

Floor has no bounce: player
Chertkov also made it clear that at the moment, his gymnasts are so worried about getting injured while practising on the floor and the table vault at Balewadi that they are forced to use it only for light drills.

Speaking to Pune Mirror on condition of anonymity, one of the players shared, “The floor hardly has any bounce and adjusting to a new surface with a lot of bounce will affect our performance. At the moment, the floor is just used for soft drills.”

Coach to fly to Delhi today
Now, tired of waiting and determined to solve the problem, Vladimir is flying to Delhi today i.e. Tuesday, where he will call an emergency meeting with the officials at the SAI headquarters.

“I will let you know what the future course of action will be. But one thing is clear: we cannot continue practising with such poor infrastructure,” he added.

It is worth mentioning here that recently, two South African coaches, appointed for the Indian rugby team for the Games, resigned following their frustration with the state of infrastructure at Balewadi and the lack of any action from the authorities.

‘No way I am going to quit!’
When we asked Chertkov if he would consider quitting, phat came the reply, “No way! I will ensure that the players will get what they deserve. I will complete my one-year contract.” At least, our gymnasts seem to be in good hands!

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