Take Srabani Nanda, India's only qualifier in the 200 metres race, for instance. The 25-year-old is stuck in a strange situation. She arrived here almost 15 days in advance to acclimatise with the conditions before her first race on August 15.
There are not many sprinters from India who have qualified for the Rio Games. But the ones, who have managed to achieve this feat despite all the limitations back home have been left here on their own in the practise arenas.
Take Srabani Nanda, India's only qualifier in the 200 metres race, for instance. The 25-year-old is stuck in a strange situation. She arrived here almost 15 days in advance to acclimatise with the conditions before her first race on August 15.
What she needed in Rio was a coach with her to train for these 15 days in her quest to improve her personal best timing of 23.07 seconds.
And why not… Indian athletes, for years, are being accused of performing much below their personal best at top competitions. Srabani knew that though qualifying for finals may not be a possibility but going past her personal best is achievable. With the way things have turned out for her, she may probably now have to worry about not performing below her capability.
Srabani was seen in the practice arena requesting other event coaches, training their own athletes, to help her out in taking her lap timings. The only thing that she said is "my coach (Tarun Shah) has not come with me, so…".
The silver medal in women's 100m sprint at 2016 South Asian Games in Assam and winner of bronze in 4x100m relay at 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, Srabani is now focussing improving her world ranking.
"I'm ranked No. 18 and if I reach semifinal heat here that would certainly mean that I would be somewhere amongst the best 13 or 14 in the world. And that would be great for me," said the athlete who is from a small village called Phulbani in Odisha.
Local vs foreign coach
The debate of personal coach versus the foreign coach hired by Amateur Athletics Federation of India (AAFI) is decade old now. As most of the athletes come from villages or small towns, they feel comfortable with their personal coaches.
IAAF, on the other hand, disapproves any such move to allow athletes to travel with their personal coaches. Athletes Renjith Maheswary (triple jump), Nirmala Sheoran (women relay) or Seema Punia (discus throw) are some others who are here without their personal coaches.
Home support
However, Srabani was lucky to have the support of her father, who after his voluntary retirement from a clerical job, took up training young athletes. Her mother is a headmistress at a local school. She was brought up in joint family and loves spending time with her loved ones.
"I've been away from home for the last two years. But realising this dream of participating in Olympics certainly needs a lot of sacrifices," said Srabani whose best time is still more than a second slower than 2016 best timer Dafne Schippers (21.93) of The Netherlands.
Srabani honed her skills at the Kalinga Stadium under coach Nilamadhab Deo. It was only under Tarun Shah that she made rapid improvement and was included in the national camp.
One of the fastest athletessin India is realising after reaching Rio that "being best is not the only quality an athlete should possess."
It's high time that someone in sports ministry back home or in Sports Authority of India (SAI) asks IAAF that "who are they hiring coaches for when the athletes are not getting benefit?"
However, there are murmurs in the Indian camp here said that efforts are on to bring these personal coaches here by next week, in time before the athletic events begin.
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