The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) on Saturday conducted its annual general meeting (AGM) in which Adille Sumariwalla was unmously re-elected as federation's president while former Indian athlete Anju Bobby George was elected as the senior vice-president.
"Our main agenda at AGM was the development of athletics. There has been improvement at the grassroots level and our major focus is on elite athletes and grassroots level athletes," Sumariwalla told .
"COVID-19 has a major impact be it physical, mental, and financial. A lot of coaches have lost jobs and athletes too have faced problems during the pandemic," he said.
Speaking about the arrangement made for athletes in view of COVID-19, he said: "Those training for Olympic games are competing within the camp amongst themselves because in the bubble environment no outsider is allowed. The athletes are missing the big competition outside but I think they are fine as we have got a very detailed program set for them. If things open up right from January onwards, they would be going out for competition to Europe, South Africa and other locations all over the world. Thus, we have a week to week plan ready for each of our Olympic bound athletes."
Sumariwalla was elected as the AFI president for the third time. Madhukant Pathak and Ravinder Chaudhary were elected as treasurer and general secretary of AFI respectively.
Former athlete Anju thanked the government and AFI for the support she has received all through this year. She believes that she has a big role to play in AFI being an athlete herself.
"As an athlete, my journey was very successful. I would like to thank AFI, SAI, and the government for the support and this is the right time to give back to my family. I believe AFI is working as a team and it's not a single man's play. I believe that as an athlete I have a big role to play in AFI and I can directly connect with athletes coaches," the former athlete told .
"For the Olympics, we started our training four years ago but did not have an idea that something like (coronavirus) would happen. The Indian athletes have one more year to prepare but still it is a pain standing away from sports. We hope that next year's Olympics will happen and Indian athletes will perform better," she added.
( With inputs from ANI )
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