Anu, Anilda Take 400m Yuri-turn

NEW DELHI: It was under the watchful eyes of their state coach PB Jayakumar that the career of Kerala quarter-milers Anilda Thomas and Anu Raghavan had blossomed. Anilda — who won gold in the Indian Grand Prix — and Anu — who came third in the same competition — had so far resisted the veiled threats and temptations of the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) to forsake their coach and join the national camp under the Ukrainian taskmaster Yuri Ogorodnik.

Anu and Anilda, who were earlier ‘not impressed with Yuri’s training programme’ and ‘fearful of his bad repute as a dope-tainted coach’, have finally decided to join the bandwagon and will be part of the 4x400m relay squad that will be sent to Poland next month for high performance training.

The decision to switch their ‘allegiance’ came during a meeting with top AFI officials, including the planning commission advisor Lalit Bhanot, at the AFI office on Wednesday.

Sources in the AFI told Express that the decision to join the camp was taken by the athletes themselves and AFI had no hand in it.

“It was purely their decision. How can AFI insist that someone to join the camp and make him/her join the camp against their will? Their names were included for foreign training with the other members of the 4x400m relay team and sanctions were obtained from the Sports Authority of India almost seven months back.“The girls then backed off at the last moment. Since they have come back, we will include their names for training in Poland,” a senior AFI official said. The athletes also acknowledged that they met AFI officials, but were hesitant to reveal what led them to return to the camp. “We were told to wait till the event here is over. After that, we might be joining the camp,” one of the athletes said. Sources close to the athletes said the fear of losing out on competitions forced the duo to take the decision. After winning gold in 400m hurdles at the last Open Nationals in Kolkata — the event also served as qualifiers for the South Asian Games (SAG) — Anu was not included in the SAG team. The move was then construed as an act of revenge by the federation. “The athletes are afraid that their chances will be dented again. If they can’t compete in any championship, then what is the need of training?” sources said.
Jayakumar said he allowed his trainees to relocate for the sake of their career, but added that he could’ve helped Anilda qualify for Rio. “She is in fine shape and can do a sub 52s. I’ve the capacity to bring her time down to 51.5s. She has an injured knee, but she can do a sub 53 in 400m, which could have helped her pick her pace by a few yards in 400m hurdles — her main event.

“Because of certain limitations, I have decided to hand them over to Yuri,” the coach said with a pale face, clearly indicating that he was not amused by the decision.