Neeraj Chopra's javelin coach Uwe Hohn sacked; AFI 'not happy' with performance

The Athletics Federation of India AFI has announced the end of its association with national chief javelin coach Uwe Hohn saying it is not happy with his performance and will hire two new foreign coaches soonThe contract of the 59yearold German a former world record holder was valid until the end of the Tokyo Olympics We are bringing two more coaches and we are changing Uwe Hohn as we are not happy with his performance We are looking for a foreign coach for Toor shot putter Tajinderpal Singh Toor said AFI president Adille SumariwallaSumariwalla was speaking during a press conference at the end of a twoday executive council meeting of the federation that was also attended by AFI planning committee chairman Lalit K Bhanot and vicepresident Anju Bobby George Hohn was appointed as chief coach in November 2017 for one year to train the likes of Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra and two other Tokyo Olympians in Shivpal Singh and Annu RaniChopra was under his tutelage during the Commonwealth and Asian Games in 2018 before another German Klaus Bartonietz took up that role Hohn had kicked up quite a storm before the Olympics by claiming that he had been blackmailed into accepting his contract by the Sports Authority of India and AFI Both the bodies had rejected the chargeA host of issues were discussed in detail during the meeting here including redesigning the AFIs junior grassroot development programme introduction of buildup tournaments for top international events such as the world championships and the Olympics and radically refurbishing its coaching programme especially for the juniorsTo reach the next level we have to redesign the junior programme how to do talent identification better to improve it further we held discussions with athletes and coaches both former and present athletes from all states Sumariwalla said One of the conclusions of the meeting was that the athletes need more tournaments in the runup to marquee global eventsAthletes need more competitions this is mainly for seniors to prepare for larger competitions Next year we have a tight calendar with the World Championships Asian Games and Commonwealth Games Athletes need competition in preparatory period so that their bodies remain in good nick So the plan is to introduce buildup competitions at the zonal level so that athletes dont have to travel farGoing by what the AFI said the coach education programme is also set to see a complete overhaul in the coming times with the introduction of a certification course involving the sports global governing body World Athletics We have decided to bring in foreign caches in junior too to strengthen their foundation and basicsApart from interdistrict we have to identify pockets in every states how to bring them what should be the parametersAlso there will be an open national event for the next five years in Jamshedpur We need experienced coaches who have produced world champions and Olympic champions with all the latest knowledge Our coaches will also work alongside the foreign coachesIn last one year we have already developed 650 coaches and 1500 in prelevel across various levels On the upgradation of the coaching programme he added We will start with grassroots as once the foundation is strong elite will automatically get strongerAlso ReadView from afar Indiarsquos sporting sphere can only get bigger now thanks to Neeraj amp CoThis is a World Athletics course and they will award the certificates Those coaches are for our identified events 400m walk javelin long jump and triple jumpThere will be a different set of coaches for junior and senior athletes We have recently identified Kerala Karnataka Punjab Rajasthan and Haryana During the meeting the AFI brass analysed the areas where it did well and also tried to identify the ones where it didnt and the reasons for it A coaching education programme has started we need at least 5000 level one coaches if we wish to cover 500 districtThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever