Bathinda stadium in shambles, athletes travel 180 km for practice
Sameer Singh
Tribune News Service
Bathinda, August 8
The mud track and grass field at the multipurpose stadium in Bathinda lie in a shambles. Pebbles and stagnating rainwater on the uneven track paints a picture of gross neglect towards maintaining the sporting infrastructure.
The project for converting the mud track into a synthetic one under the Khelo India initiative hasn’t yet seen the light of the day. Athletes from Bathinda and other villages were forced to travel up to 80 km to a sports school at Ghudda village before the authorities there denied the permission to practise. Subsequently, now athletes travel more than 180 km from Bathinda to Sangrur to practise on a synthetic track at War Heroes Stadium there.
Officials indifferent
Despite repeated requests, we couldn’t obtain permission from the district administration to practise at a sports school. We are now forced to travel 180 km to Sangrur to use the track there. —Harnek Singh, Coach, Sports department
New track soon
There was a proposal to build a synthetic track, but it was shelved as the multipurpose stadium’s land is on lease. We are now planning to introduce a cinder track soon for athletes. —Parminder Singh, District sports officer, bathinda
Harnek Singh, athletics coach, Sports Department, said: “There is no synthetic track in Bathinda city. I used to take athletes to a sports school at Ghudda by traveling 80 km from Bhai Rupa village in the district. We were asked for permission, which despite repeated requests couldn’t be obtained from the district administration. Left with no alternative, we are now forced to travel all the way to Sangrur for the practice.”
Players practicing on mud tracks find it difficult to acclimatise and perform on a synthetic track at national and international events.
Sources said many players had sustained injuries due to running on the dilapidated track at the multipurpose stadium, but the Sports Department failed to learn any lesson.
A long-distance runner from the city said: “The shock absorption while running on a synthetic track is way better than that on a regular ground or grass. It ensures a stable and faster tread. Even a mild rain disrupts the practice sessions. Athletes can practise on the synthetic track even though it gets wet.”
Harnek Singh said: Neeraj Chopra could win the first gold medal in athletics at Tokyo as he had been training in Russia with advanced sporting infrastructure and technology for past couple of years.”
“Despite the lack of infrastructure, athletes trained in Bathinda have won 25 medals at national level and more than 200 medals at state-level sporting events in past 10 years. And there are national records by athletes from Bathinda in track events. It’s the responsibility of the government to provide infrastructure, training and proper diet to athletes if we expect them to do better,” said Singh.
