Ministry fast tracks Mirabai Chanu’s demand for recovery coach
Vinayak Padmadeo
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, May 11
It seems that the 2017 World Champion Saikhom Mirabai Chanu will not have to wait for eternity to get a recovery coach to aid her development.
Chanu, who is touted to be one of the medal prospects for the now postponed Tokyo Olympics has been wanting to get a personal recovery coach for some time now.
In fact, a proposal, on her behalf, was sent to the Sports Authority of India (SAI) by the Indian Weightlifting Federation months preceding the Covid-19 outbreak. But no decision could be taken in this regard as the country was put under lockdown.
However, Chanu’s demand got a fresh lease of life during an online meeting initiated by Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju.
All nine weightlifters – Chanu, Rakhi Haldar, Sneha Soren, Jeremy Lalrinnunga, Ajay Singh, Gurdeep Singh, Satish Sivalingam, Achinta Sheuli and Raja Muthupandi – were present for the meeting which was called to discuss restarting of training of elite athletes.
While the majority view from the lifters was that they wanted to restart training soon, Chanu raised her pending demand of a recovery coach.
It is understood that the SAI top officials gave a go ahead to initiate the hiring process after the meeting.
Now the Indian Weightlifting Federation will advertise for the position and shortlisted candidates will be interviewed by a committee before appointment.
The previous proposal had mentioned at least two names – South Africa’s Sandy Lo and Briton Hillfiger. Lo has been helping Chanu from time to time and may be the one who gets the nod.
‘We are falling behind’
Interestingly, while everything was discussed, Rijiju failed to give a clear cut plan as to how or when the training will restart.
Chanu and all other lifters stressed on the fact that while other contenders from North Korea and China had been training all this while, the Indians lost a lot of time without.
“For us a week of no training sets us back for a month. Imagine how much we have lost in two months. If this continues we will struggle,” Chanu was reported to have told Rijiju.
The Sports Minister is said to have agreed to the concern and commented on how some of the lifters have ‘loose muscle’.
The meeting was also attended by the new Sports Secretary Ravi Mittal, SAI Director General Sandip Pradhan, Indian Weightlifting Federation Secretary General Sahdev Yadav and CEO Tops Commander Rajesh Rajagopalan (retired).
