Under-16 athletes no longer allowed to participate in higher age-group competitions, confirms AFI

The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) has taken a bold decision to not allow under-16 athletes to participate in higher age-group competitions. The decision has been made during its recent Annual General Body Meeting.

In a bid to make early specializations, the athletes would suffer from burnout and over-training. As a result, their progressive careers would suffer, resulting downfall. Concerns about excessive training have been raised for many years and the federation has now decided to take a stern decision on the matter.

“There will be no under-16 athletes taking part in the Under-18 competitions and senior level,” AFI Planning Commission chairman Lalit Bhanot said.

The decision to curb overtraining aims to safeguard the well-being and long-term development of the athletes. The federation understands that it can take a toll on the athletes' overall development.

“Overtraining of young athletes can have negative and detrimental effects on both their physical and mental well-being. This practice, often driven by an excessive focus on a desire for early success, can compromise the athlete’s long-term development,” he said and cited the example of Bhudhia Singh.

“Such athletes show some good performance initially but due to overtraining they cannot sustain their performance later on. Their best performance is never repeated once they enter the mainstream.

“We have to stop it, we can’t make children keep on running. Coaching was different earlier, coaches would push children more and more before burnout. We are following the results of research, the muscles become imbalanced. The old coaches have some issues.”

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AFI to send a team for next year’s Asian Youth Championship

That said, the AFI has planned to send a team for next year’s Asian Youth Championship, but has limited the participation to a few events. It has been understood that scrapping all the youth competitions could lead to athletes taking up other sports.

“We will send a team for 100m, 200m, 400m and not for middle and long distance. We will also send in long jump, high jump but not for triple jump as it gives pressure on the joints. We will also not send athletes for hammer throw,” Bhanot said.

The World Youth Championships has already been taken out of the scheme of things as the World Athletics had scrapped the tournament a few years ago. This was done to not put the athletes under too much pressure and lead to possible burnout.

Moreover, the AFI has come up with strict selection measures for next year’s Para Olympics. The athlete needs to equal the mark of 16th place finish in the Tokyo Olympics if they want to be considered.

“It is necessary for an athlete to achieve at least 16th place performance of the last Olympics held in Tokyo in 2021 apart from achieving the qualification standard,” according to the AFI guidelines.

The Inter-State Athletics Championship is scheduled to take place from 27th to 30th June next year in Panchkula. This will also be considered as the final selection trial for the 2024 Olympic Games.