Hima Das nearing her best: High Performance Director

Agencies
July 22, 2019

New Delhi, Jul 22: Indian athletics' High-Performance Director Volker Herrmann feels star sprinter Hima Das is nearing her best, having won five successive gold medals in three weeks in Europe.

The 19-year-old Hima has won five races -- four in 200m and one in her pet 400m event -- in Poland and the Czech Republic since July 2. She has been improving on her timing even though the field in all the five races was mediocre.

"Hima is progressing in the right direction. If you want to run sub 50 seconds (in 400m) you also have to be able to run sub 22.80 in 200m. She is getting closer," Hermann said, explaining why she began with 200m races before switching to 400m in her last race on July 20 when she clocked a season-best time of 52.09.

Hima is yet to qualify in either 200m or 400m for the World Championships, to be held in Doha from September 26 to October 6. The World Championships qualifying mark stands at 23.02 and 51.80.

Her male counterpart Muhammed Anas has qualified for the World Championships after bettering his own 400m national record last week.

"We also have Muhammed Anas breaking his own record and that is quite promising," said the 38-year-old Hermann who took charge on July 1.

The highly qualified German, who has worked in a similar capacity in his native country and Singapore, said athletes around the world have been making changes in their training due to the World Championships happening late in the season, and the Indians are also adjusting accordingly.

"All around the world, athletes are facing the same problem. The coaches have to rush the whole preparation model. The athletes will need to peak twice, the first (peak) right now and second by the end of September.

"We are preparing a series of competition to raise our performance level and then we will continue on a slightly higher level with higher intensity towards World Championships," he added.

He said 25 to 30 Indian athletes can qualify for next year's Tokyo Olympics.

"In men's and women's 400m relay, the eight finalists at World Championships will directly qualify for Tokyo and in certain ways, that is the easiest for us to qualify. Mixed 400m relay is another one we can qualify. Then, we are in a good situation in javelin throw and 400m.

"Tokyo is exactly one year from now. We will work on the strengths and weaknesses of our athletes to do our best. But we need to look forward to 2024 and 2028 Olympics."

Hermann said his plan is to make three different strategies for the three upcoming Olympics.

"First for Tokyo, we will work with the current athletes in the high-performance team. Secondly for 2024, besides the current athletes, we have to find talented ones at youth and junior levels who have the potential to be at the top level in five years from now. They can be 15, 16 and 17 years of age," he said.

"For the 2028 Olympics, we have to work with 10, 11 or 12 years old children. To be honest, these are athletes with which we can initiate change in Indian athletics. We need to work at the state and district level, give proper foundation to these kids, more towards core training and technical model.

"India should develop its own philosophy and not copy from say USA or another country to face specific challenges it has. The working of officials should be streamlined and coaching methods should be the same throughout the country."

He said that training of high-performance athletes should focus more on increasing intensive quality sessions rather than on volume, and provide enough recovery time.

"The modern method of training is to increase the number of intensive sessions and achieve high quality. You cannot have high volume and high intensity. But you have to have enough recovery time. Otherwise, you will have an injury and mental fatigue.

"The ideal training is to ensure 100 per cent in a few events like the World Championships or Olympics. It is important to give one time 90m throw (in javelin) instead of five-time 85m.

"Unlike other sports, it is not enough to give 96 or 97 per cent in a top event, you have to be 100 per cent. The three or four per cent makes all the difference."

On India's high-performance pool of athletes, Hermann said, "130 or 140 elite athletes in national camps currently is too small a percentage of the total population. In the USA, there were 200 thousand athletes competing in the NCAA.

"But I am optimistic of Indian athletics making strides in coming years. The government and the AFI are working hard and other stakeholders are also interested in taking athletics forward. We need the involvement of state and district officials in a big way for grassroots development. We need a step-by-step approach to take Indian athletics to the next level."

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News Network
June 3,2020

Colorado, Jun 3: Formula One boss Chase Carey has said that races will go ahead even if a driver tests positive for coronavirus.

His remarks come as organisers revealed a revised 2020 calendar and the schedule for the first eight races was put in the public domain.

"An individual having been found with a positive infection will not lead to a cancellation of a race. We encourage teams to have procedures in place so if an individual has to be put in quarantine, we have the ability to quarantine them at a hotel and to replace that individual," the official website of Formula One quoted Carey as saying.

"Some things we'd have to talk through and work through. The array of 'what ifs' are too wide to play out every one of them, but a team not being able to race would not cancel the race. I do not think I could sit here and lay out the consequences," he said.

Carey added the organisers will be having the necessary procedures in place so that the race does not get cancelled if a driver ends up testing positive for coronavirus.

"But we will have a procedure in place that finding infection will not lead to a cancellation. If a driver has an infection, teams have reserve drivers available," Carey said.

"We would not be going forward if we were not highly confident we have necessary procedures and expertise and capabilities to provide a safe environment and manage whatever issues arrive," he added.

The Formula One 2020 season will be beginning with the Austrian Grand Prix in July.

F1 currently expects the opening races to be closed events but hopes that fans will be able to attend again when it is safe to do so.

The season will kick off with the Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring on July 5, followed a week later by a second race on the same track.

The Hungarian Grand Prix will follow a week after that, before a break. There will be then two back to back races at Silverstone, followed by the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona.

The Belgian Grand Prix will follow that, with the Italian Grand Prix at Monza a week later on September 6.

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News Network
May 10,2020

New Delhi, May 10: Former Australia captain Ian Chappell has proposed radical changes in the LBW laws, stating that a batsman should be given out leg before as long as the ball is hitting the stumps irrespective of the spot of its landing and impact.

Chappell also said captains should agree on one way of working up the ball which will encourage swing bowling, even as the ICC is considering the use of artificial substances to shine the ball instead of sweat and saliva in post-COVID-19 scenario.

"The new lbw law should simply say: 'Any delivery that strikes the pad without first hitting the bat and, in the umpire's opinion, would go on to hit the stumps is out regardless of whether or not a shot is attempted'," he wrote in a column for ESPNcricinfo.

"Forget where the ball pitches and whether it strikes the pad outside the line or not; if it's going to hit the stumps, it's out."

The 76-year-old said the change in lbw law would attract expected criticism from the batsmen but it would make the game more fair.

"There will be screams of horror - particularly from pampered batsmen - but there are numerous positives this change would bring to the game. Most important is fairness.

"If a bowler is prepared to attack the stumps regularly, the batsman should only be able to protect his wicket with the bat. The pads are there to save the batsman from injury not dismissal.

"It would also force batsmen to seek an attacking method to combat a wristspinner pitching in the rough outside the right-hander's leg stump," said Chappell.

He cited Sachin Tendulkar's example on how he negotiated Shane Warne's round the wicket tactic during the 1997-98 Test series in India.

"Contrast Sachin Tendulkar's aggressive and successful approach to Shane Warne coming round the wicket in Chennai in 1997-98 with a batsman who kicks away deliveries pitching in the rough and turning in toward the stumps. Which would you rather watch?

"The current law encourages "pad play" to balls pitching outside leg while this change would force them to use their bat. The change would reward bowlers who attack the stumps and decrease the need for negative wide deliveries to a packed off-side field," he said.

Chappell said his proposed change to the lbw law would also cut down "frivolous" DRS challenges.

"This change to the lbw law would also simplify umpiring and result in fewer frivolous DRS challenges. Consequently, it would speed up a game that has slowed drastically in recent times.

"It would also make four-day Tests an even more viable proposition as mind-numbing huge first-innings totals would be virtually non-existent."

On the substitute of shining the ball without sweat and saliva, Chappell said international captains should find out a way of working up the ball.

"With ball-tampering always a hot topic, in the past I've suggested that administrators ask international captains to construct a list (i.e. the use of natural substances) detailing the things bowlers feel will help them to swing the ball.

"From this list, the administrators should deem one method to be legal with all others being punishable as illegal," the cricketer-turned-commentator added.

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News Network
June 24,2020

New Delhi, Jun 24: Star Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan deeply regrets his "silly mistake" of not reporting a corrupt approach by an Indian bookie to the ICC, leading to his one year suspension from the game.

Shakib was banned for two years, one year of it suspended, for failing to report corrupt approaches during an IPL edition by an alleged Indian bookie named Deepak Aggarwal.

"I took the approaches too casually When I met the anti-corruption guy and told them and they knew everything. Gave them all the evidence and they knew everything that happened," Shakib told Harsha Bhogle on 'Cricbuzz in Conversation'.

"To be honest, that's the only reason I was banned for a year, otherwise I'd have been banned for five or 10 years," he added on the ICC's investigation.

The 33-year-old, who was in brilliant form before the ban, amassing 606 runs in the 2019 World Cup in the UK, said he regrets how he went about the situation.

"But I think that was a silly mistake I made. Because with my experience and the amount of international matches I've played and the amount of ICC's anti-corruption code of conduct classes I took, I shouldn't have made that decision, to be honest."

Lesson learnt, Shakib's advice to all young criceters is to never take any such message lightly.

"I regret that. No one should take such messages or calls (from bookies) lightly or leave it away. We must inform the ICC ACSU guy to be on the safe side and that's the lesson I learnt, and I think I learnt a big lesson," he added.

The all-rounder, whose ban ends on October 29, said he became a bit arrogant and never felt he was doing anything wrong by not reporting the bookie's approach immediately.

"Because you do most things right in your life, you tend to get arrogant with some decisions. You may not realise but you're doing wrong by the books. It never came to my mind that I am doing something wrong

"It was just a feeling of 'okay, what's going to happen, leave it' and I continued with my life. But that's the mistake I made. And that happens," Shakib said.

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