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Sanas ground closure impacting city athletes’ performance: Experts
The entry at the ground was restricted after PMC built a Covid Care Centre in March and it was shut on December 27, 2020
City athlete Abhar Datta won the bronze medal in the high jump event during the 36th National Junior Athletics concluded in Guwahati recently but believes “regular practice” could have given him the gold.
Datta is one among many athletes who are missing their regular training as Baburao Sanas Ground is still not made available for athletes by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC).
The entry at the ground was restricted after PMC built a Covid Care Centre in March and it was shut on December 27, 2020.
Sanas ground is the hub of athletics training in Pune, there are around 500 athletes from the city who used to train daily. Now, in post-Covid these athletes are hopping between different grounds and also going to Taljai hills for practice.
“The maintenance work (cutting of grass, cleaning work) is still going on, once it is done the ground will be reopened for athletes”, said Kishori Shinde, assistant municipal commissioner, sports department.
With all the grounds in the city being available for training of other sports, parents and coaches are visiting the PMC office for regular inquiries but no written assurances are given by the PMC.
“We were told that the ground will open from February 1 but when our children went to the ground, officials at the ground denied them permission. After that, there has been no new date given by PMC,” said a parent from Prerna Palak Sang – a parents’ body of athletes.
A spot visit from HT confirmed that ground maintenance work is still not completed.
“It’s been more than one month since PMC is still not able to finish the work. Our athletes have to travel more, and synthetic tracks are not available everywhere which is making things harder for training and impacting their performance,” said Atul Sharma, parent.
Arvind Chavan, coach of Datta said, high jump needs regular practice.
“Abhar only had three days of practice after reaching Guwahati other than that he was doing only fitness training. The color of the medal could have been different if he was in regular practice. With all these circumstances I am happy with his performance,” Chavan said.
Chavan who runs the Pune athletics club is taking his athletes to Taljai hills, Kataria high school ground, and Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex, Balewadi for practice.
“We are left with no options since Sanas ground is still not available for practice. Travelling is impacting the practice schedule of athletes,” said Chavan.
Refurbishment of track still pending?
On February 4, 2019, ₹3.73 crore tender was floated by the PMC for the refurbishment of the existing track, and even after 24 months the work at the Sanas Ground has not started.
“The work will start soon by PMC Building department. Currently, we will open ground for athletes after maintenance work is completed,” said Shinde.
