Afro Asian Games

[BSharma]

Medal tally:

China with 25 golds (total medals - 41) is the leader but India has fared well by winning 19 golds (total 80 medals). Japan is third with 15 golds (total 23 medals).

We can debate for ever about the quality of the competition at the Games but the fact remains that the Indian athletes did win a bunch of medals and hopefully will build on these successes.

Good job!

[BSharma]

Does anyone know where the second Afro-Asian Games will be held? Usually there is a special ceremony during the closing ceremony of the Games when the next host nation takes the Games flag from the previous host nation.

No nation had come forward at the time of the opening ceremony of the First Afro-Asian Games to host the next Games, and countries were looking to see how the first Games went before deciding about the second one. I think that the first Games were a resounding success, and some nation should come forward to host the second one.

Congratulations to the organisers in Hyderabad.

[jayakris]

South Africa, Egypt and Nigeria were reported to be in the running, as they said during the AAG. I believe it will only be decided later.

Jay

[Kumar]

By the way, where are our next set of athletes. I am talking runners. Nothing much has surfaced in the last 2-3 years it seems from the younger ranks. Are we going to have to wait for 3-4 years till PT Usha starts shurning out some good runners from her new academy?

Jay

I think the reason Indians don't do well in athletics is the lack of coaches. Athletics is one sport which doesnot require heavy investment but lot of encouragement and great coaching. In Athletics, one can go to certain level with natural ability and training? To get to the higher level,one needs good coach who can teach how to train and the techniques involved. Letz hope PT Usha can be that difference.

some say (PT USHA implied this once in a newspaper article i saw long time back) the Indians perform well domestically with the aid of drugs and when they go to internation competition their performance comes down. This issues were raised especially after the lacklustre performance in Asiad / Olympics not even performing up to their domestic standards

[BSharma]

The performances of Indian athletes at domestic events have been made to look better sometimes by officials who cheat to get the athletes to qualify for international events. These athletes come no where close to those marks at international events. This has gone on for ages in India because Indian officials can go to international events only if the athletes qualify.

Taking drugs to improve the performance in India is a newer phenomenon compared to the officials cheating to improve the timing or distance of an athlete.

I agree that there are very few good coaches for athletes in India. The correct form of running, throwing, jumping, etc has to be learned at a young age, and is difficult to correct at a later age. India needs athletic academies run by good coaches and administrators in every state in the union.

[Kumar]

Please see these article regarding the positive drug cases and how it has been handled by IOA.


http://www.hindu.com/2003/11/11/stories ... 292000.htm

[BSharma]

Athletes all over the world need to clean up their act. With cheating taking place all over, people are losing confidence and respect for the top level athletes. Even the US authorities have tried to hide the positive drug test results of their athletes.