Athletes during a 800m sprint at Birsa Munda stadium in Ranchi. File picture

Jamshedpur, Feb. 20: With the second phase of training camps for the National Games round the corner, the state athletics association has decided to lay more emphasis on middle and long-distance runners.

The association officials said, as the time is quite short, it would be useless to start nurturing talents in events like discus throw, javelin, hammer throw. According to them, it is better to train middle and long-distance athletes who have been doing well over the years.

The association, apart from laying stress on such talents, is contemplating talks with respective sports federations to bring top coaches.

However, the Jharkhand Athletics Association (JAA) is banking on the funds, which will be provided by the state government for the camp. Once the funds are in the kitty, talks would be initiated with the federation to hire coaches for nurturing the state team.

JAA president Madhukant Pathak said: “Already fresh deadlines have been issued for the National Games. Even if it is held in November, we cannot take the chances of nurturing talents in events other than in middle, long distance and relays. Athletes in these events are doing well and we would lay emphasis on them in the second phase of camps.”

Senior functionaries of the association went on to say that athletes from the state are doing well in 800m, 1,500m, 5,000m and even 10,000m section while those in different throws and jumps have not been able to make much of a mark in tournaments.

“We are not saying that the other athletes would not be trained. They too would be given tips in the second phase of training camps but stress would be given to the middle and long-distance athletes as they can win medals for the state and we want to improve on that. Special schedules and other such aspects would be worked out for them,” said a senior official.

The JAA also has plans of bringing down top coaches of the country in order to train the state athletes.

Pathak said: “All these aspects depend on the nature of funds which the state sports department will provide. Once the funds for the camp are here, we would talk to the Athletics Federation of India officials for providing coaches to us. Apart from that, we would have our own coaches for the camp as well.”

The state sports department has already allocated more than Rs 1.2 crore for different sports associations as part of their annual grant and the athletics body would soon get it. Apart from that, the funds for the camp would be given separately.