Miffed with the decision of the Target Olympic Podium Scheme committee to overlook him despite reaching the world championship final, Davinder Singh Kang said he is considering moving to Italy to prolong his career. But such a transfer to another country won’t be as straightforward for the Indian javelin thrower for several reasons.
Kang, the only Indian to qualify for a final in this year’s world athletics championships in London, was not included in the list of athletes who will receive support under the Indian government’s TOPS program for the upcoming Commonwealth, Asian Games and Olympics Games.
This snub has irked the Asian Athletics bronze medallist to the extent that he was unsure if he can continue his training in India without financial support. The 28-year-old has said that he is considering accepting an offer to shift to Italy, where he said he will be given funds to train.
“If an athlete at the peak of his career doesn’t get support, then how will he perform for the country?” an evidently frustrated Kang told The Field. “The Italians approached me late August, they saw me reach the finals of the world championships. Neither the state nor the Centre is willing to help me or listen to me, so what am I supposed to do? If there is no solution to my problem here, then I believe it will be better for me to move to Italy,” he added.
Kang said he was in talks with Italy’s Campionati Nazionali Universitari, an elite sports training scheme, through an Indian 400m hurdler now in Italy. He has been offered support worth $2,000 a month but would have to compete for Italy.
A transfer freeze and a doping case
But the big question here is whether Kang can get the requisite permissions to represent Italy as easily. The transfer of allegiance process was frozen by the International Association of Athletics Federations earlier this year. In February, the IAAF had put an immediate stop to changes of nationality by athletes, saying the system has become open to abuse and rules are being manipulated.
While athletics allows players to change nationalities even after they have represented one country at international level, a new system for this is being put in place for this and as of now, the process remains frozen.
To get a clearer understanding of the technicalities involved, The Field spoke to Adille Sumariwalla, the president of the Athletics Federation of India, who said that Kang cannot come under TOPS until his name is cleared in the doping case he was caught in this June.
The javelin thrower had tested positive for marijuana, traces of which were found in his urine sample collected during the third Indian Grand Prix athletics championship in May. But he wasn’t suspended because marijuana falls under the “specified substance” category in the World Anti-Doping Agency’s prohibited list of the performance-enhancing drugs. Kang is to appear before the National Anti-Doping Agency’s disciplinary panel for a hearing.
“Till his hearing is held and till his name is cleared, it is not possible for the government to add his name to the list,” Sumariwalla said. “The matter of the hearing is between him and Nada, the federation is not a party to that,” he added.
One more try
On his part, Kang is trying hard to work it out with the TOPS committee or the Sports Ministry. On Wednesday, he met Pargat Singh, the former hockey player-turned politician who promised to take up his case with Sports Minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore.
“Singh, an Olympian and MLA from Jalandhar, called me yesterday and said he will talk to Mr Rathore later this month. But I don’t know as yet if the meeting will help,” Kang said. The 28-year-old has a job with the Army for the past 10 years and has been using the salary as well as help from his father, a farmer in Jalandhar, to finance his sporting career.
Kang explained his precarious finanical situation, saying he is under a debt having borrowed money from his father, coach, and even colleagues at the national camp, including the father of a fellow athlete who used to be a javelin thrower himself.
His last two noteworthy performances – the Asian Athletics in July and World Championships in August – earned him a reward of Rs 5 lakh from the Punjab and Odisha government, he said. However, the entire amount went into replaying his various debtors.
In a final bid to make the authorities to take notice, Kang will participate in the upcoming National Open Athletics Championships from September 25 in Chennai, despite carrying a shoulder injury. He was carrying the injury during the world championships as well, he said, but believes that if he can put in a srtrong effort of about 86-87m, it might convince the committee to add his name to the TOPS list.
But for now it appears that the matter depends on the Nada hearing, with or without Kang’s performance at the Open Nationals.
