Golden touch despite a rickety path

{LACK OF FACILITIES} MEERUT, A FAMILIAR TALE

- Sharad Deep

Every evening as events at the Asian Games come to a close, the broadcasters show images of the lit-up athletics stadium in Hangzhou. The stadium, dubbed 'the Big Lotus' for the shape of its roof, consists of 28 large and 27 smaller petalshaped structures. The stadium can seat 80,000 people and is as state of the art as it gets.

It was in this stadium that Parul Chaudhary produced a burst of speed to go past Japan's Ririka Hironaka and clinched gold in women's 5,000m. It was her second medal of the Games, having won silver in the 3,000m steeplechase. It was a moment of immense joy for the Meerutbased athlete. But at the same time, it must have been a strange feeling as well.

When she returns to India... to Meerut, the stadium that awaits her can't hold a candle to 'the Big Lotus'. The Uttar Pradesh government-run Kailash Prakash Stadium, which was built in 1951, is in a poor condition with no facilities for athletics. Several athletes are forced to travel to New Delhi, Sonepat, Rohtak, Karnal, Kurukshetra and even Panchkula routinely on pool cabs. All this, just so that they can run.

It doesn't seem fair. When Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath praised the Meerut athletes, Parul and Annu Rani (she won gold in women's javelin), for their achievements at the Asian Games on Tuesday evening, he might not have been aware that both the athletes brought laurels to the country without having a facility for their disciplines in their city.