The irony in Indian athletics is that though they look like they want to break free of their ‘amateur’ shackles, the apex body — the Athletic Federation of India (AFI) — is hardly doing anything for the athletes. The new sensation Amritpal Singh, who a few days ago broke TC Yohannan’s 30-year-old national long jump record set at the 1974 Asian Games in Tehran, is struggling for recognition. So while current Indian athletes are knocking down old records regularly, the amateurish approach of the AFI remains in tact.Incidentally, only last month the AFI had dropped the word ‘amateur’ from their name because they wanted to be ‘‘taken seriously’’. AFI’s secretary-general Lalit Bhanot had said at the time that ‘‘amateur does not give the right impression’’.But the response to Amritpal’s performance does not even hint at any move towards professionalism. Ideally, four months before Olympic fever strikes, AFI should have showcased the 21-year-old’s performance and hailed it with an appropriate prize money or scholarship. That would have attracted a lot of talented youngsters to athletics.At the Asian level, countries like China would have picked him up immediately and sent him for advanced, specialised training so that he could become a medal prospect for the 2008 Olympics. But in India, not a single response has come in from any organisation so far. The AFI, the sports ministry, the Punjab government, or anyone.. The DGP of Punjab Police — Amritpal’s employers — made a phone call to congratulate him on the day the record fell. That’s it.The only communication so far from the AFI to the youngster has been to ask him to join the camp at Patiala for the 2004 Olympics but there is no clear-cut plan.On the issue of giving the athlete some monetary award, Bhanot asked The Indian Express, ‘‘Prize money for what? He came out of our programme. We had sent him for exposure in the World Junior Championships and the Asian Championships.’’As for the champion himself, all you get is a tentative ‘‘Nothing. Everything depends on them.’’The assistant sub-inspector with Punjab Police says, ‘‘My father’s pension is spent entirely on my training. A pair of imported spikes for my event costs between Rs 7,000-8,000. I need at least two pairs in a season.’’It’s still a distant dream for Indian sportspersons to get the minimum facilities that are required to compete at the world level. Amritpal had to shift first from Sangrur to Ludhiana for his initial training, then again to Jalandhar for a job and returned again to Ludhiana, ‘‘to stay close to the stadium so that I could train on the synthetic tracks’’. ‘‘The Punjab Police team is required to train at Jalandhar but it’s not possible to train there because the track is far away from the centre. I used to spent so much time on travelling.’’Amritpal adds, ‘‘I live in a rented accommodation near the stadium but the rent is high and difficult to meet from my salary. My family supports me so that I can carry on.’’However, Amritpal’s sensational performance continues to be the talking point among younger athletes who were at the Federation Cup till a couple of days back. A TV channel had also invited him for a special programme. But apart from that, things remain the same.The youngster’s parting remarks is: ‘‘It’s very disheartening. In cricket, even if you lose there’s so much money. In athletics even if you win a gold or break a record, nothing happens.’’
