The Kerala women’s basketball team in discussion after a training session on Monday.
| Photo Credit: Stan Rayan
For someone from the warm South, it’s very cold out here in Dehradun. With such weather, one wondered how the swimmers would manage life during their competition in the 38th National Games which Prime Minister Narendra Modi will officially inaugurate here on Tuesday.
Olympian Srihari Nataraj, one of the top names in the sport, is yet to test the waters at Haldwani — some 270km from Dehradun — where swimming begins on Wednesday.
“I’m here in Delhi, waiting for my flight to Dehradun so I’m not sure about the weather there,” said Srihari on Monday evening.
“I’ll be competing in 10 events, five individual and five relays.”
But Monal Chokshi, the Swimming Federation of India’s general secretary, said the weather would not be a problem.
“That doesn’t look like it because the temperature control system is working well, right now the water temperature is 24-25 degrees,” said Chokshi.
Meanwhile, Sajan Prakash, who probably has the biggest collection of National Games medals — 26, including 14 gold – plans to do fewer swims here.
“I won nine medals at the last Games in Goa but this time I’ll probably do just four or five events here, I won’t be doing the relays. I’m not in proper condition,” said the Olympian. “I had taken a break after the Olympics till December. I’ve just started training.”
Basketball will start on Tuesday at the impressive hall in the Maharana Pratap Sports College complex, the Games main venue, and the female hoopsters from Kerala appeared confident.
“We’re probably the favourite,” said international R. Sreekala, the captain of Kerala which finished runner-up at the recent Nationals. “National champion Railway is not here but many of its players are in the Tamil Nadu so it could be a strong side too.”
A few years ago, whenever the National Games hit the headlines it mainly used to be to announce a postponement. After 2015 in Kerala, the Games’ next edition was in 2022 in Gujarat. But now, we have the third Games in four years.
“That is something to be happy about, now we are looking how to time the National Games better,” P.T. Usha, the Indian Olympic Association president, told The Hindu.
“We had planned to start on February 15 and run it till March 4 but the host Uttarakhand was keen to have them on January 28. Also, a mid-February date could also be a problem for many who are writing exams,” said Usha who said the current edition, which runs till February 14, has attracted over 9500 athletes in 35 disciplines. “But we need to discuss with federations closely to find a better date that will attract many more big stars.”
Still, it’s a fact that India still has a lot of catching-up to do when it comes to hosting multi-discipline events. There were a lot of last-minute work going on at many venues and one hopes everything will be in place when the show begins.
Published – January 27, 2025 09:10 pm IST