Broken track, debris cause injuries to school athletes

NEW DELHI: Several young age-group athletes, including an Indian international skater, sustained injuries during the 69th National School Games Roller Skating Championships after being made to compete on an uneven concrete surface in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh. The event, which runs from Dec 26-30, has highlighted the sorry plight of sports infrastructure at the grassroots level.The competition surface is riddled with cracks, loose gravel and debris, which repeatedly stopped skaters’ wheels, causing loss of balance and falls. Luvyansh Pandey, an international-level skater and the first Indian athlete to win medals at the European Roller Skating Cups in Germany, Belgium, Portugal and Zurich last year, received seven stitches on his jawline after a fall when the wheel on his rollerblade came in contact with loose debris. Luvyansh, hailing from Uttarakhand, is the country’s leading inline skater and boasts of 12 international medals in his promising career. A technical official, on the condition of anonymity, said, “The surface where the event is being held does not meet the required standards and is broken in several places, causing injuries to the school children and athletes. Ideally, it should have happened at a skating rink.” TOI is in possession of photos and videos from the competition that highlight the poor arrangements by the organizers and raising serious questions for the SGFI and the Madhya Pradesh school education department over how the Nationals were allowed to be conducted on such a hazardous surface. TOI tried to reach out to SGFI president Deepak Kumar for his comments, but he was not available. Talking to TOI, Luvyansh’s father Tara Datt Pandey said “My son has received seven stitches. He came to win gold medals at the championships, but is returning with an injured, bleeding jawline. The surface posed a serious risk to all the participants. There have already been 6-7 cases of injuries. My son was skating and, during a bend, a cobblestone got stuck to his wheel and he got injured. My son is a professional-level skater and has won several international medals.”Alok Khare, joint director, School Education department Bhopal, admitted lapses on the part of the organisers and said the corrective actions would soon be taken. “It’s unfortunate (that injuries have happened). We have directed the authorities to immediately repair the surface. The Nationals were originally planned to be held at the Sanskriti Sports Complex’s skating rink in Gwalior. But some legal matter happened, and the Madhya Pradesh High Court put a stay on the sports complex. Since the dates for the Nationals were already decided, we conducted it at the ITM University grounds so that the school kids aren’t deprived of competition.”