Nagpur, Aug 25
Keeping in view the central government's TOPS scheme, the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) for the first time has introduced the new Under-23 category the nationals of which will be held next months.
The Maharashtra selection trials for the newly-introduced Under-23 category and senior will be conducted simultaneously at Nashik on September 2 and 3.
While talking about the Under-23 category and its benefit to the athletes the secretary of Nagpur District Athletics Association (NDAA) Dr Sharad Suryavanshi said, “ Basically the federation has introduced this category keeping in view the TOPS scheme. Thru this category the federation will get such athletes those who will be trained for forthcoming Olympics”, he said.
It can be mentioned here that as far as Maharashtra Athletics Association (MAA) is concerned then it has various age categories including Under-8, Under-10, Under-12, Under-14, Under-20 and then senior. According to Suryavanshi due to the new category, the athletes will get the chance to participate in the national camp much earlier. In an earlier case, they would have to wait for around five years and now after Under-20, they will get such chance within two years.
Mostly the college students who qualify for World University Games will be benefitted from this category.
When asked how many district athletes will be benefited by this cateory Dr Suryavanshi said, “ This category has been introduced for the first time. Therefore, the athletes are not much aware about it and secondly due to Covid-19 restrictions, there will be very limited entries for the state selection trials. Till then I can tell you that around 10district athletes (mainly long distance runners) will be benefited in future”, he said.
Long distance runner Prajakta Godbole has welcomed the move of AFI in introducing Under-23 category. She said, “ Basically there is tough very competition in the open category due to which the young athletes get very less opportunities.New category will offer them to prove their talent. There are lot of athletes in Nagpur district which fall in this category”, she said.
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Young blood will get opportunity: Tong
While reacting over-development senior athletics coach Ravindra Tong said, “This new category will offer good opportunity to young blood. There are number of talented athletes in Nagpur district like Riya Dhotre, Shadab Pathan who have just crossed U-20 category. They will get the golden chance but for that they will have to show their talent in the national championship to qualify for World Under-23 Meet. Let's wait and watch”, he said.