On death bed, athletics awaits a saviour

Kanpur: When international hammer thrower Gunjan Singh visited her home in the city on a vacation recently, she had to skip practice owing to absence of a practice ground. While Gunjan managed without practice, city athletes have been struggling hard to keep their practice and form going.
Athletics has been waiting for a ‘saviour’ ever since the only available practice ground was reserved for cricket by the owners, DAV College, some five years back.Now, even the college conducts its annual sports and athletic meet on other ground.
District Athletics Association (DAA) secretary Dinesh Bhadoria laments, “We even failed to provide a practice ground to our home grown international hammer thrower Gunjan Singh during her recent visit to the city.”
DAA president Narendra Pandey says, “The DAV ground was allotted for athletics way back in 1952 by Virendra Swarup in his capacity as the chairman of standing committee of sports of Agra University. The college was then affiliated with the Agra University. However, in 2008, the college suddenly banned athletics on the ground and earmarked it for cricket.”
Reminiscing, Pandey who retired as head of IIT-K’s physical department, said, “There was a time when athletes from all over the district came to DAV College ground to practice with senior athletes. Athletes from police, PAC, LIC, Post and Telegraph and banks used to practice here. Even Army jawans and air force athletes used to frequent the ground. Their participation used to raise the standard of district meets.”
The ground produced a number of international and national athletes, including Anoop Yadav and MP Singh (hammer), Abhishek Pandey (400 mtrs hurdle), Gunjan Singh, Sukanya Mishra and Shilpa Chauhan (hammer), Anjani Naulakha (discus), Sanjeev Singh (middle distance runner), Avnindrajeet Singh (sprint), Prem Singh (5,000 metres), Arvind Singh (long jump), Afsar Khan (3,000 metres), Jayanti Singh (long distance runner), Ankita Pandey (discus and hammer) and Swati Singh (thrower), he claims proudly.
The popularity of the college ground among athletes, he says was due to perfect lap of 400 metres and six-lane track on natural turf. “Besides, track events, the ground also had facilities for throw and jump events too,” he adds.
Continuing in the same vein, he further says that the then head of DAV College’s physical department DD Shukla was himself a runner and had even participated in Marathan race. “Fellow teachers used to call him Daur Dhoop Shukla. Despite a still competition among DAV, VSSD and Christ Church College in university and district meets, he never objected to athletes from other colleges practicing on the ground along with his wards,” Pandey says.
“After losing the ground, we now lack a 400 metre track in a degree college. OEF and Armareena stadiums in Armapur estate can have a track but as they are defence establishments, the entry is prohibited. IIT-Kanpur too has a 400-metre track but outsiders are not allowed,” says Pandey and adds, “There is no place where athletes can practice.”
The only solution available, say Pandey and Bhadoria is that either DAV College throws open its ground for athletes once again or Kanpur Nagar Nigam develops a park within city limit where in morning and evening walkers could use the pathway in outer periphery and a six-lane track of 400 metre lap along with grassy ground could be developed for athletes inside the pathway.