Hyderabad, TELANGANA :
Hyderabad:
National chief rowing coach Ismail Baig is a man on a mission. With 2020 Tokyo Games coming in three years, he is closer to his dream of having an Indian women’s team in Olympics. Baig is confident that if the women rowers continue to persist with the game with dedication, they can qualify for the Olympics. He also says that the Telangana rowers have started carving a niche for themselves with their exploits. He also revealed his next assignment as coach in an interview with Shiva Krishna Gundra.
On India’s Next Assignment
We are conducting Indian camp for the upcoming Asian Championship and next year’s Youth Olympics next year. The camp has started three weeks. If our rowers do well in World championship or Asian Championship, they can book the Youth Olympics quota. However, there are only two categories for each country and that too, one quote is reserved for women. Right now, we have 19 boys and 14 girls training in the camp. For the first time, we have eight rowers from our State which is remarkable.
On State Rowers
Our state rowers are doing great at nationals especially in sub-junior and junior level. We topped the nationals in the junior and took second place in seniors. These results assures of a bright future for the State. We have good support from SATS (Sports Authority of Telangana State) as well. We were never on the rowing map in the country in the combined State. But after formation of the new State, we started from the scratch as most of the rowers left for the other States. Most of the kids are from army families. But we are concentrating more now on our own athletes.
On Target 2020
There are good girl rowers like Sitamahalaxmi. Youngsters like Geetanjali and Hemalatha are very impressive. Both these girls won gold in junior category. They won bronze in the senior category as well. So I am working on this combination for the 2020 Olympics. I am pretty sure the men’s team will qualify but my dream is to have a women’s team for the Olympics for the first time in rowing history. I’m happy with the way the girls are making progress. I am confident that if they stick to the game, they can qualify.
On Infrastructure
I can’t say we have world class infrastructure. But this is one of the best facilities in the country. We have federation’s equipment. We have a good water body in the city.
On International Events In The City
The quality of the water in Hussain Sagar is not good. The government is also doing a lot to clean the water. But it also depends on the citizens of the twin cities. If we can do that, we can have international tournaments in the city. We conducted an international tournament in 2005. If the water condition improves in the future, every year we can conduct an international tournament.
On Game’s Popularity
I have been coaching since 18 years. The game was not so popular then. The game was introduced in the Asia in 1980s. We used to win only bronze medals. But under my coaching we have won gold and silver at Asian Games and qualified for the Olympics for five consecutive times. Dutt also finished good in the last Olympics. That is a great achievement. So the craze for the sport is increasing slowly.
On Future Rowers
We started three years ago with few rowers who were of 10 and 11 years. Now they are producing results. Rowers like Sairaju won international silver medal in pair category. It is a great achievement. He also won gold in the nationals. So our rowers are producing good results at national levels and also competing at international level.
On Government Support
We need more funding. We need more local camps and talent hunts. We have to start two or three centres in other parts of the State. We can establish a centre in Karimnagar. There are other places where we also can start. We can get more talent and give advanced training in Hyderabad. That will help for larger pool of talented rowers.
The Bhopal water sports has 15 crore budget. We don’t have that much budget in the State. Our rowers have won first gold medal for the State in National Games in Kerala. We won five medals from rowing alone. That is 40 to 50 per cent of medals that won State was from water sports. A medal from hockey or other games will give lot of attention. But medals from water sports are not treated in the same way. Ours is an Olympic sport. We need to change our thinking.
source: http://www.telanganatoday.com / Telangana Today / Home> Sports> Other Sports / by Shiva Kumar Gundra / March 23rd, 2017