Pune:
The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) on Tuesday elected Ravinder Chaudhary as its officiating secretary till the Commonwealth Games during their executive council meeting.
The executive committee also appointed a five-member panel to be chaired by Supreme Court lawyer and vice-president Sushil Salwan to take appropriate action against the 10km Bangalore International Run which has been deemed unauthorised by the AFI.
The members also reviewed the performances of the athletes and made a projection of six to eight medals in athletics at the upcoming Commonwealth Games to be held in New Delhi from October 3-14.
"Ravinder Chaudhary has been appointed as the officiating secretary of the federation till the Commonwealth Games (October 30) and it has been accepted unanimously by the house," the outgoing secretary Dr Lalit K Bhanot said.
On the performance of the athletes and the coaches,Bhanot said, "We are not very happy with their performance but it's satisfactory.
We hope to get about six to eight medals in the CWG and more than 15 medals are expected at the Asian Games (to be held in China in November)."
He further said there would be strict guidelines in place to regulate the meets in India and top consultancy firm Ernst & Young (EY) will be hired.
"A five-member committee will submit its report within 30 days to inquire into who took part in the unauthorised 10km Bangalore run. If required, we will issue showcause notices to the athletes," Bhanot said.
"There will be a committee to review the athletic calendar and how it can be done smoothly and it will be chaired jointly by (working AFI president) Adil Sumariwala and JS Saini.
"Another committee has been formed to look into the racism charges made by Wahida Rahman against (coach of India's middle-distance athletics team), Nikolai Snesarev. The committee chaired by Sumariwala and Chaudhary will inquire both the parties and give the report by 30 days," Bhanot said.
Sumariwala said that E & Y will be hired as the consultants for a period of five years.
"They will be given the full marketing, sponsorship and merchandising rights in our bid to regulate and streamline the various events coming up these days.
"We want to streamline all those marathon events and have a strict guidelines in place as we see there is a lot of farce going on during these events. These competition are not conducted technically and more of fun and entertainment than the actual race," Sumariwala said.
Having appointed the officiating secretary of the AFI, Chaudhary said, "Taking the load of Dr Bhanot, whom I consider my mentor, is a big challenge. I have seen the growth of the AFI for years and I would follow his steps.
"We are in a process of improving our website which has seen a tremendous boost in terms of visitors recently. We will also improve the archive part of the website."