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PHOTO: S. R. RAGHUNATHAN

WINNERS ALL (From left) Ramadoss, Ezhilnilavan, M. Vijayakumar and Madhan Kumaran of Loyola College; and (Right) M. Sudha of MOP Vaishnav College who were adjudged the best in the men’s and women’s sections respectively in the A.L. Mudaliar Athletics Meet

There couldn’t possibly be a sports-loving college in the city that has not participated in the Dr. Sir A. Lakshmanaswamy Mudaliar Athletics Meet. Its popularity and prominence on the city’s athletic calendar is such that participants know for sure that a good performance here will be seen and taken note of by those who matter.

The AL Mudaliar Meet, of late, seems to have lost its importance for a variety of reasons; primary among them being official lethargy. Despite these constraints, it retains its aura mainly due to its imposing history. The 40th edition held at the Nehru Stadium in Chennai recently saw only those affiliated to the Madras University taking part, a move that evoked mixed reactions.

Nirmala Prasad, Principal, MOP Vaishnav College, said it would motivate city colleges to put in more effort to produce strong teams and help the Madras University perform better at the all-India level.

“This time we have seen an improved performance from the AM Jain College (it finished third in the men’s category after Loyola and MCC). And the SDNB Vaishnav and Women’s Christian College have done well too. It’s because the engineering colleges did not take part,” she explained.

“The competition, this time, has been lukewarm,” admitted former 110m hurdles National champion M.V. Rajasekhar. The Loyola College athletics coach said the Madras University needed to push the meet more aggressively. A. Rajan, 800m gold medallist in the 1981 Asian championship in Tokyo and Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu coach, however, felt “not conducting the meet last year and excluding the professional colleges were mistakes.” Rajasekhar said, “The one-year gap has resulted in lesser number of colleges participating.”

Out of the 19 men’s and 14 women’s colleges that registered for the event this year, around 8-10 failed to turn up. Surprisingly, only two meet records were toppled, both by MOP Vaishnav’s M. Sudha. The 24-year-old, doing her MA (Public Relations) set records in the half marathon and the 10,000m events. A native of Palakkad, Sudha often undergoes high-altitude training at Udhagamandalam. She finished first in all the four events — the half marathon, 10,000m, 5,000m and 1,500m — she participated in. Sudha emerged the overall championship in the women’s category, while the men’s section had four — Ramadoss, Ezhilnilavan, M. Vijayakumar and Madhan Kumaran — all from Loyola College, sharing the honours.

With only two new records being created, is it fair to say that the overall performance in the meet has gone down? “No,” said Rajasekhar.

He argued that the timings recorded in the 100m and 200m sprint were not all that bad. Only that the existing records had been created by National-level athletes and were difficult to obliterate. Rajan disagreed. He said the performance had drastically declined. “Not a single record was broken in the men’s section. Earlier, Madras Christian College used to give a tough fight to Loyola, but this time, it was not the case”.

“The lukewarm response to the meet can be attributed in part to the examinations,” said Dr. K. Moorthy, Physical Education Director, DG Vaishnav College. Quite a few coaches suggested that the meet would be better served if colleges from Tamil Nadu were also allowed to take part.

Sensing the popular mood to make the event more purposeful, the organisers promised a better show next year.

K. KEERTHIVASAN

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