The Hindu : Sport / Cycling : SAI centre hit by shortage of cycles

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 23, 2005

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Sport - Cycling

SAI centre hit by shortage of cycles

By M. R. Praveen Chandran

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, FEB. 22. Shortage of cycles and spare parts is affecting the smooth functioning of the Sports Authority of India's (SAI) cycling centre attached to the Lakshmibai National College of Physical Education (LNCPE), Kariyavattom.

LNCPE, which houses the State's only velodrome, has 52 trainees and out of them 19 are in the payroll of SAI's Pay and Play scheme. But the centre has only 19 cycles — eight track and 11 road cycles — to cater to the needs of its trainees. These cycles of Italian make (Campagnola) were given to the centre in 1989 and some of them cannot even be repaired. The spare parts are not available in India and repeated requests to the authorities have not yielded desired results.

"The situation is so bad that we are forced to use the same cycles for training and competition," said coach Usha S. Nair. "It is utter chaos during training as three or four cyclists sometimes use one cycle and the cycle has to be adjusted according to the height of the rider. All these adjustments will have an adverse effect on the original rider of the cycle."

Despite the shortcomings, trainees from the SAI centre are doing well in National competitions. At the recent National Cycling Championships, the trainees accounted for majority of the medals won by the State in the meet. International Rajani, who won two gold medals at the National meet, is one of the trainees of the SAI centre at LNCPE. "We have brought the matter to the notice of the authorities so many times in the past but we have only got promises in return. Nothing concrete has taken place so far," said Usha.

Other states such as Punjab, Andhra Pradesh and Manipur have better facilities and equipments. The carbon wheel disc and lightweight frame are in the vogue now but cyclists from Kerala can have none of the modern amenities. Most of them come from poor families and they cannot afford hi-tech track cycles, which are much more costlier than road cycles — the latest track cycles cost more than Rs. 1 lakh.

The shortage of equipment was brought to the notice of the chairman of the Parliament Committee for Human Resource Development, Vayalar Ravi, and other MPs who recently visited LNCPE. Mr. Ravi and SAI Director General, J. P. Singh, who was also present, have promised all necessary help.

The cycles currently with the LNCPE were part of the batch of 100 cycles brought by SAI during the Asian Championships held in New Delhi in 1989. It is learnt that SAI has not invited global tenders for purchasing cycles since then. But with India poised to host the Asian Championship this October, SAI will be forced to buy new cycles. The trainees and the coach at LNCPE are keeping their fingers crossed and hoping that a few cycles will be allotted to them from that consignment.

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