Sports management in India has hit its nadir. An entire contingent of National level athletes – who made India proud with their stellar performances – ended up sleeping on the floor of a train while returning from the Junior National Athletics Championships.
This is not the first time in the country when sportspersons have been treated shoddily, irrespective of their glorious wins.
While there were almost 30 athletes, only two tickets were confirmed. The sportspersons were told to manage on their own. That is how Delhi’s athletics team undertook the 30-hour journey back from Vijayawada after competing in the Junior National Athletics Championships that concluded on Monday (Nov 20)
Left with no choice, the sportspersons had to sleep on the floor near toilets. The shameful incident came to light when an athlete, Pradeep Atri, made a video and uploaded it on Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/vipin.sangwan.963/videos/769512686567104/
The athletes, after a tiring day of competition, took the train at 9:30 pm on Monday. They later realised that only two among the entire team had confirmed tickets. The youngsters were forced to sleep on the floor and under seats while others managed to grab temporarily vacant seats, which they had to vacate when the reserved passengers arrived.
“We have undergone so much pain in the last two days. Some athletes stood for hours and did not even find a seat to rest for a while. Some slept near the toilets,” Pradeep Atri, a discus thrower, told The Indian Express.
“My body is still hurting. In fact, I am at the hospital now and undergoing physiotherapy. I already had a muscle strain and this tiring journey has made it worse,” another athlete said.
“We can’t book tickets unless we get a confirmed date. We got to know about the final dates on October 19 only and we booked the tickets then itself. Tickets to Vijayawada were confirmed but due to the postponement, we could not manage to get confirmed return tickets,” Sandeep Mehta, secretary of Delhi Athletics Association, said.
Unfortunately, it’s not the same case for all. The Indian cricket team travels in an aircraft, while shooters are detained for 12 hours at the airport on their way back from the Grand Prix. Even the Indian women’s hockey team members on their way back from Rio Olympics were forced to sit on the floor of the Bokaro-Alleppey Express Train. Para-athlete Suvarna Raj was forced to sleep on the floor of a train she was travelling in -- stories of sportspersons getting ill treatment never end.
The nation is disappointed!
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Feature Image Credit : Indian Express
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