Army Sports Institute, Pune
This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content. |
A backgrounder
Tushar Dutt & Sandip Dighe, August 6, 2022: The Times of India
When Jeremy Lalrinnunga won a weightlifting gold for India at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games on Monday, cheers rang in the halls of Pune’s Army Sports Institute where he was first honed as an 11-year-old in 2012. Jeremy’s medal had once again proved that the institute’s 21-year-old plan to win at the Olympics was working.
The 72-acre ASI in the middle of Pune has worldclass infrastructure, but its scouts, who traverse the country looking for kids who may one day run faster, dive deeper, lift heavier and outlast all others, are its secret sauce. Jeremy was their find.
“We saw him in his hometown near Aizawl. He seemed a good contender for the weightlifting group,” says Naib Subedar LD Krishna, who trains weightlifters at ASI and was one of the coaches who picked Jeremy for its Boys Sports Company (BSC), a special sporting unit for under-18 athletes.
Achinta Sheuli, who won another weightlifting gold in the 73kg category at Birmingham, and London Olympics boxer L Devendro Singh also cut their sporting teeth at the BSC. Neeraj Chopra, who won the javelin gold at last year’s Olympics, is an alumnus as well with a trainingfacility named after him now.
Mission Olympics
While the Sports Authority of India and many private centres now train promising junior athletes, ASI was the first with a residential training centre for young boys back in 2001 when only China, Russia and some countries in the West had them.
ASI commandant Col Devraj Gill remembers how the institute was born after the then chief of army staff General S Padmanabhan was asked if the Indian Army could do something for sports in the country. “We then went to work and conceptualised ‘Mission Olympics’ to identify core disciplines where the Army had a strong base and the medal probability at the Olympics was ‘high’. ”
They started with wrestling, weightlifting, athletics, boxing and archery, and added fencing and diving later. Everything from diet to exercise, training and dis- cipline was then overhauled to build just one thing – an ASI that’s a “conveyor belt for talent” that can “win at the Olympics”. When the institute realised “mental blocks” were costing athletes medals, it introduced sports psychology training. “A few seconds of mental block became the difference between victory and defeat during the Tokyo Olympics… we can’t overcome this problem unless we train our athletes mentally too, at very early stages,” says Col Gill.
The institute also goes out of its way to nurture talent. When Dronacharyaawardee boxing coach BB Mohanty brought a 9-yearold boxer named L Devendro Singh from Manipur, he says they realised “we had to get teachers for class IV schooling as we only had classes from class V at ASI. ” Adjustments were made, and Singh went on to win a silver at the Asian meet and participate at the London Games.
BSC recruits are mostly from families of humble means, says Mohanty, who retired in 2019. They get proper schooling along with sports training, and their board and stay are taken care of. Some drop out, butthose who stay on are inducted into the Army oncethey turn 18.
Eyes On The Future
The young trainees atASI have their eyes on thefuture. Sachin from Bhiwaniin Haryana came to the institute as an 11-year-old fouryears ago. He is training tobe a racewalker. Althoughhis folks have no idea aboutthe sport they are happy he’sin Pune. “My father is a farmerand mother is a homemaker. They didn’t hesitate to sendme here. They have a lot offaith in the Army,” he says. Supradeep Saha, a13-year-old diver from Howrah in West Bengal, says hewas homesick at fi rst butknows that his dream of representing India and winningan Olympic medal rests uponhis staying at the institute.
Spotting Ripe Talent
Besides picking raw talent, the ASI also looks forpromising athletes at sporting events. That’s how theyfound Neeraj Chopra at anational meet in 2016. “Ourjob is to get them on boardand train them further,” saysCol Gill. The third route to ASIis through the Army’s ownsports meets where scoutspick potential winners. Steeplechaser Avinash Sable wasone of their finds. “I saw Avinash at oneof the inter-unit meets inHyderabad. He used to runcross-country then, butwhen we saw him we thoughthis style and temperamentsuited steeplechase more,”says former ASI athleticschief coach Captain AmrishKumar, who also spottedNeeraj and moved him tothe Army’s rolls. Avinash,26, will run in the 3000msteeplechase at Birmingham.
