National pole vault center, set up to groom athletes for 2024 Olympics, on verge of close down 

The Sports Authority of India's ambitious project to train young pole vaulters for the 2024 and 2028 Olympic Games, launched in November 2018, is on the verge of closing down due to a lack of coaching staff.

The national pole vault academy was merged with the National Center of Excellence (NCOE) in January 2020, but has been functioning without coaching staff since December 2020.

The academy was launched at the end of 2018 with two coaches on board. PC Tyagi was head of the coaching department while Devender Kumar was an assistant coach.

Devender, who was on deputation from the Railway, was sacked in December 2020 on disciplinary grounds. He allegedly thrashed Anuj Kumar, a student at NCOE.

Meanwhile, head coach PC Tyagi, who was on deputation from the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), wasn't granted an extension in August 2020.

Shekhar Kumar Pandey, Khelo India medalist in pole vault, is one of the athletes of the academy.

Due to the pandemic, the academy remained closed from March to November in 2020. Since Covid-19 cases escalated in New Delhi, the center was again closed down in April 2021.

The SAI recently shifted the pole vault center to Bengaluru from New Delhi’s iconic Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium. This might add to the woes of the athletes as they aren’t interested in shifting to Bengaluru, that too without a coach.

“We had joined the pole vault academy in New Delhi because the head coach had a lot of experience. For the last nine months, there has been no coach at the academy. The academy is being shifted to Bengaluru but there is no coaching staff,” said a pole vaulter of the academy.

The SAI’s ambitious project to nurture potential athletes for the 2024 and 2028 Olympic Games never ran on expected lines. The athletes trained on a worn out landing pit which was more than 10 years old.

Senior SAI officials weren’t available for comment on the issue.

Since its launch in 2018, the athletes of the academy have practiced with obsolete equipment. Athletes use different poles in the off-season and in competition, said one of the pole vaulters of the academy.

“Pole vault is a technical event. A different set of poles are required as the athlete makes progress. A pole used to scale the bar at four meters' height will not be beneficial to cross the bar at five meters. The athlete has to constantly change poles.”

In preparation for the upcoming competitions, the athletes were hoping to start training on their own at Nehru Stadium. To their dismay, the center has been shifted to Bengaluru.

“The issue of coach has not been addressed by SAI. We doubt that we will go to Bengaluru,” added one of the athletes of the academy.