BHOPAL, 9 December 2005 — Rajinder Singh, the former Indian hockey coach, is against the appointment of foreign coaches to help burnish the Indian team.
“The dismal performances by the Indian team in Olympics prove that appointing a foreign coach for the Indian team is worthless. The strategy of Asian hockey is much different from the European and other countries so a foreign coach cannot provide the basics to the team,” he said.
There is no dearth of good coaches in India, he added. He was in Bhopal here to select players Sports Authority of India (SAI) for the Central region.
Regarding the prospect of the Indian hockey he said that people from every walk of the society should come forward to improve the standard of hockey.
“If you look at the school-level hockey there is hardly any school that provides full-fledged assistance to the students to play and compete. The game in India is still visible just because of the presence of SAI whose achievements have not been recognized. Most of the players in the Indian team have come through SAI,” he said.
He says that the coaches should not be targeted for the bad performance of the team every time. Rajinder, one of the successful coaches of the Indian hockey team, was sacked from the post by the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) just 20 days before the Athens Olympics.
“That was in the past and I do not want to remember those days. I want to engage myself with the players on the field rather than involve in any controversy,” he said.
Regarding the present national team he said the Indian hockey is passing through its worst phase. “For the last two-three years the Indian team has put up dismal performances. There is a need to think seriously over the issue,” he said.
He said that the management should learn that it is worthless changing coaches on every occasion when the team failed to perform.
Kerala Dominate
Kerala athletes retained their overall title in 31st National Women Sports Festival phase 3rd that concluded here.
It was an outstanding performance by the Kerala team in the athletics. They won seven gold medals in 15 events, to emerge overall team champions. Punjab elbowed out Orissa to come runners-up.
In the 4X400 relay category, the last event of the championship, Kerala team demonstrated their excellent commitment. Though it was tough for Jyothi ES, Sini R, Rasmi Bose and Shana Sulaiman of Kerala to beat the challenge of Karnataka, but their coordinated efforts ensured victory in 47. 7 seconds.
Two new meet records in long jump and discus throw were created. Rashmi Bose of Kerala improved her last meet record by jumping 5.86m in the long jump. She broke her last effort of 5.73 m recorded in 2003. Interestingly, Shahna Suleman of Kerala, who came second in the same event bettered the last meet record as she jumped for 5.80 m. G Nandini of Tamil Nadu stood third by jumping 5.52 m.
The second meet record came in discus throw. Archana Mandal of West Bengal, who won the shot put gold medal on the first day, broke her last meet record by throwing discuss .63 m better than the last one. She won the gold by throwing discus 45.23 m. Aman Preet of Punjab won the silver with 40.12 m. Bhavana Gaud of MP came third by throwing discus up to 37.65 m.
Meanwhile, in badminton in the team championship event Punjab eves were at the top. Host Madhya Pradesh held the second spot. Tripti Lavania won gold for Madhya Pradesh in the Open Singles event outplaying Sujata of Delhi. Navita Thakur of Punjab was third.
In the Open doubles N Suswetha and V Jyoti Swarupa of Andhra Pradesh came first, Navita Thakur and Jaspreet Randhwa of Punjab stood second and Delhi’s Vanshika and Sujata were third.
In the table tennis team championship Tamil Nadu eves stole the show grabbing first rank followed by Punjab, West Bengal and Uttaranchal who held the second, third and fourth position respectively.
