At 77, Yuri’s pain becomes a bane for SAI, AFI

Sabi Hussain

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 10

The decks have almost been cleared for the dope-tainted Ukrainian track and field coach Yuri Ogorodnik’s return to India to prepare the athletes for the 2016 Rio Olympics.

But the Athletics Federation of India’s (AFI) secretive plan to engage Ogorodnik as the foreign coach till the Rio Olympics has hit a small roadblock.

The AFI has forwarded Ogorodnik’s application to the Sports Authority of India (SAI) to appoint him before the Olympic qualifiers. However, the SAI has raised doubts regarding Yuri’s declining health and old age.

“Yuri suffers from an undisclosed disease which could pose a major problem for the SAI if we appoint him. People would question why did we appoint him in the first place when we knew about his condition. Also, age is not on his side, he is 77 and too old to take up the coaching position,” a senior SAI official told The Tribune.

The SAI wants Ogorodnik, who was sacked by the Sports Ministry in 2011 after the country was rocked by one of its biggest doping scandals, to submit a health certificate from a well-known medical practitioner registered with the Ukrainian government.

“It should detail the current state of his disease and the treatment he is undergoing,” said the official.

The SAI does not want to take any chances with the health of Ogorodnik as has been the case in the past when he had fallen ill at NIS Patiala on many occasions during his previous engagement with the AFI.

It has been learnt that Ogorodnik has given his acceptance to the AFI to take charge of the quarter-milers (women’s 400m, 400m hurdles and 4x400m relay) teams, but the SAI has again asked him to give the coaching option a thought.

“His appointment would largely depend on his response. We don’t have any problem with his tainted past as the inquiry commission had ruled that Ogorodnik wasn’t directly involved. If the AFI wants him back on the athletes’ popular demand, we have no objection to it, but he needs to give a health certificate,” the official said.

In a related development, the AFI has also approached Yuri Minakova to take charge as the coach of the throw events. Minakova was associated with Indian athletics eight year back.