Ooty track waits for face-lift

Sri Lankan cricket great Kumar Sangakkara recently said many give credit to the system for the exploits of his country in the last decade but he stressed the fact that he, Mahela Jayawardene and Muthiah Muralitharan flourished in spite of the system.

The same holds true for the strides made by the Tamil Nadu long-distance runners in nationals and international events. G Lakshmanan and L Suriya, who train at the Madras Regimental Centre, Ooty, have risen from the ranks not because they have excellent training facilities.

Of course, it is true that Ooty provides the ideal high altitude conditions required for such a training. No wonder, the national camp for middle, long-distance and marathon is held at the MRC, which is the only training centre for the category in the country.

Currently, 10 athletes from all over the country for the middle distance and long distance international events are undergoing training in Ooty under the watchful eyes of former international Surendra Singh.

“Yes, there is no denying that this is the only high altitude centre along with the Sports Authority of India’s centre at Kengeri (Bengaluru) for training the distance runners,” said Surendra Singh, who holds the national record for 3000 metres both indoor and outdoor and also the 10000 metre record.

“We have made a representation to the Tamil Nadu Government to lay the synthetic turf at the Ooty track but it has not been cleared yet,” lamented Surendra Singh. In fact, it should be an eye-opener to the State government in the wake of the recent success of Lakshmanan, who won both the 5000 and 10000 metre events at the Asian Track and Field Championship in Bhubaneswar.

“My training with the coach and other athletes is going on well,” said Lakshmanan, who is busy preparing for the Asian Indoor Meet scheduled for September in Indonesia. The 25-year-old athlete from Pudukkottai will be chasing his own coach’s (Surendra Singh) record in the Indoor Meet in Indonesia.

And Surendra Singh, a strict disciplinarian, who has even banned the use of cell phones while his wards train with him, believes his record is not safe with Lakshmanan lurking over it. Lakshmanan is employed with the MRC and so is Tamil Nadu’s 400 metre Olympian and Arjuna Award winner Arokiarajiv.

Amazingly, conditions are not a constraint for Lakshmanan, Surya and Arokiarajiv, who trained in the interior Tamil Nadu with practically no system to support them. The coach of Lakshmanan and Surya when they started their track journey, Shanmugam Loganathan, literally picked them up from scratch before turning them into potential medal winners from Pudukkottai.

Since 1982, he has been churning out young talents and one of them happens to be his own daughter, Suriya, who specializes in 5000 and 10000 metres. “I wanted to put a system in place and tried to make a 400 metre track but failed,” confessed Loganathan. “We don’t even have a 200 metre track. I was trying to put three 200 m tracks with the help of some sponsors in Pudukkottai but did not succeed,” he noted. Around 50 athletes have trained under Loganathan since 2006. “Lakshmanan had failed in SSLC, so it was easy for him to have full focus on running. Quickly he learned and by 2007 he was ready for the local marathons. And by 2008 he was a star in our district and the MRC coach approached us and so he joined MRC,” recalled Loganathan.

The Open National Meet by September end in Chennai will see the distance runners in action along with Surendra Singh.