Athletics in India - sad news!

About 6 months ago, I had made a serious bid to prepare for the 21kms run in the Delhi Half Marathon. I began by skipping and spot jogging at home. A few weeks down the line, I stepped out of the house to find an athletic stadium where I could freely jog without being worried about on coming vehicles, hurting my knees and possibly breathing some fresh air.

Well NOIDA had nothing to offer, except for the NOIDA football grounds with thick grass and and ditches. I quickly returned to the safety of my home and also gave up the idea of 21 km run.

New Delhi is hosting the C'Wealth games and not one stadium with a proper running track. The roads are unsafe and running on the roads is not the best for one's knees. When I was in school at Hubli in Karnataka, every morning my friends and I went out for athletics practice at the local Engineering College grounds. It was a good 400m track. Hubli at that time had at least two other athletics stadium. In school the annual athletics meet was a highlight of the year. I wonder if school kids in Delhi have the opportunity to work on the sprints and other athletic disciplines. I know that the school in which my daughter studied had their annual athletics meet once in 4 years! Ha! Ha!

I wonder if the sport loving citizens of Delhi would have more facilities for athletics after the 2010 Games. Shouldn't Sheila Dikshit and co ensure that all the DDA sports complexes are accessible and have proper running tracks which ideally should be standard 400m tracks. These tracks could easily go round the millions of cricket facilities around the city.

I want to run. I am sure that there are many more people in the NCR who also want to run. So please, the powers that be, do something about it.