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Young prodigies win medals for ANU

B. Anjaneyulu.

The recently-concluded all-India inter-university athletic meet at Tirunelveli saw some heartening performances by the Acharya Nagarjuna University athletes, who had won a silver and bronze medals. That the entire contingent could manage to garner just two medals is a different story. What is noteworthy is that a majority of them were teenagers pitched against some of the more experienced and more talented counterparts from other universities. In fact, among all the universities took part from Andhra Pradesh, only ANU athletes had the honour of claiming the victory podium.

Emerging contingent

Says Vinayak Prasad, SAAP athletic coach at Vijayawada: "This is an emerging contingent. Last year we bagged four bronze medals. Though we pocketed two medals this year, the silver medal performance by D. Bharatha Reddy in 400-metre sprint is something to relish. He clocked 48:90 seconds missing the gold narrowly by a fraction of a second."

Another medal winner was B. Anjaneyulu, who took a bronze medal in 200-metre dash clocking 22: 28 seconds. "In both the cases, the athletes could not pip their rivals because of their bodyweight. The all-important energetic burst close to the post was missing. As the soil was loose, they fail to generate the pace at the post. They lost in photo-finish," Prasad said. In discus, Rajesh's 47.87-metre throw got him the fifth place. "Technique-wise, there is nothing wrong with Rajesh. But what he is lacking is the required bodyweight for the event. He needs to increase at least 12 more kg to perform well in premier meets. Strong legs and arms are imperative for discus throw," coach felt.

CBR Foundation's support

D. Bharatha Reddy.

Thanks to the support of CBR Foundation headed by Babu Rajendra Prasad, the trust is offering support to the quality athletes in Vijayawada by taking care of their financial needs. The trust's endeavour is to send a few city sportsmen to partake in 2010 Commonwealth Games.

Tenali's ASN College has also come forward in a big way encouraging the talented athletes by adopting B. Anjaneyulu, D. Bharata Reddy, Raju, Ch. Venkateswaralu and Fazal. However, the absence of SAI or SAAP academy between Krishna and Anantapur districts is hampering the growth of athletics. "We have SAI training centre at Eluru for athletics. From Krishna to Anantapur covering seven districts, there is no training centre. As more and more educational institutions are encouraging students in this region to take up athletics, training centres will be of great help in shaping the budding careers," Mr. Prasad felt.

J. R. SHRIDHARAN

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