Mumbai: Corporate house pumps money into athletics programme, with a focus on women

Athletes, corporates and officials at the event. Pic/Sayyed Sameer Abedi

India's awesome foursome - long jumper Anju Bobby George, first Indian to win a World Athletics Championships medal; Priyanka Goswami, 10,000 m race walk 2022 Commonwealth Games silver medallist; Annu Rani, 2022 Commonwealth Games javelin bronze medallist; and 2018 U-20 400m champion and two-time Asian Games gold medallist Hima Das - took centre stage at the Athletics Federation of India's (AFI) upbeat announcement of a partnership with HSBC India at a conference held at a Lower Parel hotel on Monday morning.

The partnership with HSBC pumping money into the AFI, for its grassroots programmes with a focus on women, was all about equality and opportunity. It will help the AFI put more resources into spreading its dragnet to scout talent among girls across the country and nurture it. It is about giving young women the chance to train with the best coaches and realise their athletic ambitions. It means opening up the world to them. Dreams, though important, are the intangible first steps towards athletic achievement. Money is one part that helps turn dreams into reality.

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Strong presence

Olympian Adille Sumariwalla, president, AFI, said on the occasion, "There was a time when we had token representation of Indian women in international athletics competitions. Today, they are a strength, a vital part of team athletics India. In the past five Asian Games editions in which we won 70 medals in athletics, 50 were won by women." He added, "While the government of India has given us support, it does not fund the AFI. We have sponsors to take the AFI vision ahead."

Sumariwalla made the most pertinent comment about the mental aspect. He said, "We hear about our athletes totally intimidated and ‘losing the race in the mind' when up against the world's best. With the support of world-class physical and mental training and creating an effective ecosystem around the athletes, which comes only with a robust kitty, Indian women athletes are now expressing themselves fearlessly in international competitions."

Corporate corpus

Hitendra Dave, general manager and chief executive officer (CEO), HSBC India, spoke about infusing money into Indian athletics. "We had an easy option, which may have been to go to the Indian Premier League (IPL). There are sports that have so much sponsorship, it would have been one more rupee in those already flush with funds. My colleague Anurag came up with this idea of contributing to something at the grassroots level."

Dave said that with their partnership, "we also hope to trigger a thought process in other corporates of our profile that we have to come together to support our athletes. It is both the government and private sector that have to work together. The government cannot do so alone."

He upped the ante on Indian sport, saying the country was destined to be a great nation. "It is time we sat in the comity of great nations. A great nation produces great sportspersons. We are at a tipping point where people now ask: why are we seventh or eighth on the medals table? Why not second or third?"

Dave also drew on a larger perspective, stating that sporting success, "especially achievements by women are part of the broader narrative of a country coming of age, like the Nordic countries. We have turned a corner, and now, it is only upwards and onwards for us," he finished on a rousing note.