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Athletics Federation of India (AFI) spokesperson Adille Sumariwalla has raised serious concerns over the quality of synthetic athletic tracks in the country, stating that a vast majority of them are substandard in terms of material, construction, and measurements.
Addressing an AFI press conference on Saturday, Sumariwalla alleged widespread irregularities in the construction and maintenance of tracks across India. "I can tell you 90% plus tracks in India are substandard. The material used is substandard, the process is substandard, and the granules used are substandard. The laying methodology is substandard, so the thickness is substandard," he said. He further pointed out that in several cases, proper materials like polyurethane are not being used, with alternatives such as tyre rubber being used instead. "Instead of polyurethane, in places, only tyre rubber is being used instead of polyurethane. Various things are issues with 90-plus per cent of the tracks, including the measurements," he added. Sumariwalla also clarified that the AFI had stayed away from track certification and related processes in the past due to concerns over awarding irregularities. "AFI was never involved. AFI had stayed away from this for a very long time. After all, we don't want to get involved, because a lot of these tracks have been awarded, which is not something that we want to get into, and that is why we stayed very far," he said. However, he added that the federation will now be compelled to participate in the process following directives from World Athletics. He further noted that based on global discussions, AFI will now have to take a more active role in ensuring track quality standards going forward. "We've never certified any track. However, from now on, we'll have to get involved because World Athletics has called us and said we need to get involved. We had a meeting in Tokyo on this, and they showed us some data, which was quite shocking," Sumariwalla said. The AFI now plans to vet a list of vendors from across the globe and also intends to intensify testing of the tracks. This development comes after the federation conducted a course with experts on how a track is to be laid, tested, and measured. (ANI)
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