Fall from grace for junior athletes
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What went wrong with the Kerala Junior Athletic Team, which lost the championship title after possessing it for more than a decade?
“There are two major reasons for the defeat of the Kerala team. One is the poor performance shown by the boys. We were able to bag only four golds in the men’s category and we were fifth.
This was a huge blow to the team,” said Tony Daniel, executive vice-president of the Kerala State Athletic Association.
There is also a complaint about the Haryana team —that they used over-aged athletes to bag more medals. “The complaint is in front of the national association and the officials will be looking at it seriously.
It is a known fact that Haryana is not a well organised team and if the complaint is valid, action will be taken,” he said.
“Nevertheless we cannot forget the under-performance of our athletes,” said Daniel. “We lost some of our monopoly events such as the sprint and jump events to other states.
It used to be a cakewalk for the Kerala players. But this time we got stiff resistance from other states. In the sprint events there were many players who were sure to get gold but some of them finished second. It is just a matter of time and we still have a good team,” Daniel pointed out.
However, Kerala excelled in the throw events getting more medals than usual. Daniel says that the results in the throw events show that we have made some improvement in the category.
“We performed well in the throw events such as javelin, hammer throw, discus throw etc, bagging four golds. This was one of the best performances by the athletes in the event,” he said.
Kerala girls performed up to expectations, getting most medals in their category. “While we got 19 golds, Haryana that was placed second in the category was able to clinch only 9.
This was a major help for the Kerala team and they were able to put Kerala in runner-up position,” said Daniel.
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