Bombay can bolt

ldquoThis is all I have Make sure you donrsquot lose anythingrsquorsquo Savio DrsquoSouza says handing over a small file It contains old issues of MidDay Sportsweek and The Daily and a plastic sleeve of photographs stained with age Once it was plump with memories of the former marathon championrsquos years of runningStar distance runner from the 1980s Savio DrsquoSouza centre is one of South Mumbairsquos most coveted coaches mentoring students at Nariman Point not very far from University Ground where he trained for free Pic Bipin KokateNow 61 DrsquoSouza is a busy coach training sprinters in a city that has become Indiarsquos running capital ably assisted by the sponsorship spinning 12yearold Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon SCMMSavio DrsquoSouza left and Shivnath Singh during a race By arrangementAt the January event this year Asian Games medallist OP Jaisha clocked 2 hours 37 minutes and 29 seconds to break the womenrsquos national record Encouraging except she wasnrsquot from Mumbai says DrsquoSouza with characteristic bluntness ldquoWe have a large body of recreational runners But where are the athletes There was a time when Mumbai and Maharashtra produced great track and field athletes Now Kerala Manipur are way aheadrdquoEdward lsquoEddiersquo Sequeira front at a race in Germany He was a founding member of Tracktrotters club that coached running talent for free By arrangementThe paper clippings in DrsquoSouzarsquos file date back to a time when things were different A report dated November 24 1986 discusses DrsquoSouzarsquos performance at the Pune International Marathon when he beat Stephen Marwa of Tanzania to second placeAlthough neither Tracktrotters or Juhu Sports Club was affiliated with the University Ground at Marine Lines the authorities supported athletics It was the centrepiece of old Mumbairsquos athletics infrastructure Pics courtesyShyam G MenonBefore that Marwa had won two years straight In 1984 DrsquoSouza finished first in India and third internationally The next year at the Singapore International Marathon he finished 18th reducing his timing by a wide margin Later at the Hong Kong International Marathon he was placed 13thThe young man from Colvale in Goa graduated through 1500m 5000m and 10000m disciplines before he ran his first marathon His best timing for the full marathon stands at 225 If he had clocked this timing at SCMM 2015 he wouldrsquove stood sixthTo support distance runners like him the city spewed a range of opportunities A November 1983 edition of Sportsweek speaks of the Runathon a 12km sprint through Central Mumbai which DrsquoSouza incidentally won And then there were the annual Sportsweek Road Races mdash a series of five competitions that would throw up an overall winner Some of Mumbairsquos private and public sector companies also maintained athletics teamsTextile giant Mafatlal the company DrsquoSouza worked for had a team each for football cricket and athletics It wasnrsquot uncommon either for esteemed Mumbaikars to support athletes Former athlete Shashi Kumar Nair remembers SK Wankhede former president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India OV Kuruvilla former chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes and RR Chari former Income Tax commissioner visiting Bombay University Sports Pavilion popularly called University Ground to cheer on participantsTwo fantastic sports clubs mdash Track trotters and Juhu Sports Club mdash committed coaches an accessible track to train on and roads that would shut down for runners made Mumbai perfect ground for athletes For Edward Sequeira who the running community calls Eddie the Pavilion was the centrepiece of old Mumbairsquos athletics infrastructureA track and field facility it welcomed Mumbai athletes from state level to Olympians Its 400moval track two curves and two straights made it a standard But the convergence of enthusiasts was thanks to the clubs The middle distance runner worked as a mechanical apprentice in Central Railways which is where he honed his running before taking it up professionally in 1959Sequeira an Arjuna awardee finished eighth in the 5000m at the 1972 Munich Olympics and held an Asian record from 1966 in the 1500 m which remained unbeaten for close to 35 years One of the founding members of Tracktrotters he traced back its origin to the late 1950s when a group of senior athletes trained together at St Xavierrsquos Gymkhana ParelIn 1962 they became the Tracktrotters a club that charged nothing to coach Parents came with eager kids who wished to train and youngsters walked in uninhibited ldquoSometimes wersquod test the candidate That was all the scrutinyrsquorsquo the 75yearold Santacruz resident says After 1969 Tracktrotters shifted its training base to University GroundAlthough neither of the two clubs or their members were affiliated to the University the authorities supported their passion Boxes maintained at the ground by the clubs held gear and equipment Coaches Mervyn Jacobie Alex Silveira Philip Silveira Vasant Kumar Prithviraj Kapoor and Peter Rodrigues all mentored free of cost Often a friendly competition ensued between the two Sequeira called it the athletics ecosystemJacobie is remembered as a competent coach by many Ashok Shetty 59 who works with the Bombay Port Trust and is a former state champion was born into a humble family in Parel With a friend who fared better at athletics the boy landed up at Tracktrotters which operated out of Khalsa College at the time ldquoAnyone could come and train It was freeThe first thing Mervyn did was catch me by my ear tell me to cut my long hair and report for training regularlyrsquorsquo Shetty recalls It seems Jacobiersquos methods wouldnrsquot survive today although they delivered astonishing results He was a man of medium build strict and insistent on punctualityThe only day he took a break from coaching was on Sundays when he attended church During evening training that lasted from 5 pm to 730 pm it wasnrsquot uncommon for students to get smacked by the disciplinarian DrsquoSouza wasnrsquot spared either On winning a race when he went up to him to share his victory he got a whack insteadldquoHe asked me why I had turned back while running lsquoYou could have run faster had you not done thatrsquo he told mersquorsquo DrsquoSouza says Shetty remembers dropping a trophy he had bagged when Jacobie snapped at him offering advice on how he could have been better ldquoThe boys I was accompanied by suddenly disappearedrdquo he laughsBut there was a heart behind the severe persona When Shetty would walk from his Parel residence to University Ground because he couldnrsquot afford a railway pass Jacobie wasnrsquot forgiving of late arrival But when he learnt of the boyrsquos dilemma he promptly paid to have his pass renewedSaturdays were reserved for a run on Juhu beach with the Tracktrotters travelling to the suburb at Jacobiersquos expense ldquoFor Mervyn coaching was lifersquorsquo Shetty says Select memories of the club sit on a shelf in Shashi Kumar Nairrsquos office housed in a building at Flora Fountain ldquoThis shelf is now the Tracktrottersrsquo officersquorsquo he says with a winkIn a souvenir marking the clubrsquos 16th anniversary which he pulls out Jacobie had written ldquoHumble as the beginning was this club had sworn to train young and enthusiastic boys and girls throughout the year both in and off season free of cost without any entrance fee membership or any such formalities irrespective of religion caste or creed to attain standards in athleticsBesides providing training these athletes are entered without any entry fee for all major athletic meets in the region track shoes track suits and spikes are issued to the deserving athletes from donations received from sports lovers and friendsrdquoItrsquos this democratic approach in dissonance with todayrsquos commercialism that Major Shashi Tiwari 50 who served with the Bihar Regiment believes helped produce champions out of nobodys Once the national junior 800m and 1500m champion Tiwari who was an athlete at Tracktrotters says ldquoI spent nine years there You donrsquot get coaches like Mervyn anymorerdquoIncidentally that old Tracktrotters souvenir concluded with a ldquolist of members mdash past and presentrsquorsquo They numbered 352 Of these 239 or 68 per cent won medals at regional state and national levels or had participated in international competitions Some of them even qualified for all four levels of honourSequeira pins the decline in Mumbairsquos enthusiasm towards athletics to 20 years ago when the University Ground refused entry to outsiders including the clubs and their wards In 1982 after the Asian Games in New Delhi the ground also served as venue for a six nationathletic meet organised by TracktrottersSo in 2011 when India was hosting the World Cup the organisers sought an expansion of Wankhede Stadium This would mean encroaching on a portion of the adjacent University Ground Sequeira and Nair drummed up enough support to muzzle the moveThe ground survived and now boasts of a modern synthetic track Access however is no longer free Itrsquos reserved for University students or those whose applications are approved Sequeira argues the incredulity of the claim that a cityrsquos position in athletics can decline because a ground shut its doors to the publicThe ground had a perfect location mdash it sat in South Mumbai accessible by road and rail thanks to the nearby Churchgate station At the time it had the cityrsquos only track worth running on Its opendoor policy helped bolster Mumbairsquos drive to catch its athletic talent young An individual sport it was physically demanding ldquoYou peak early in itYou can easily be a national champion at 16 or 18 Catching talent early is key Restoring a ground to the public is only part of the panacea thoughrdquo he says The stalwarts are aware that kids today lead a life dramatically different from those in the 1960s and 70s An interest in physical application has dipped And a procession of distractions exist particularly the mobile phoneldquoWhen we trained we werenrsquot allowed to speak to one anotherrsquorsquo Tiwari recalls Veteran coach Bala Govind points to the hurdle that academics offer DrsquoSouza agrees ldquoStudies squeeze out sports In competitive sport if you take a break and return your contemporaries would have surged aheadrsquorsquoBorn in 1953 he moved to Mumbai in 1972 after clearing class 10 and got admission into Maharashtra College Byculla on the strength of his athletics performance By 1976 he was representing Mumbai University in 5000m and 10000m ldquoI was noticed We used to have talent scouts whorsquod sniff us out and a system that provided sustenance to dedicated sportspersonsrsquorsquo DrsquoSouza saysIf your athletic abilities earned you a seat at college your continued excellence bagged you a job at a prestigious firm ldquoIrsquod be away seven to eight months of the year training and competing And Irsquod receive a regular salaryrsquorsquo says Sequeira who held a job at Tata SteelIf his memory serves him in 1982 the Tata Group had within its fold six world champions five Olympic medal winners four Commonwealth Games medal winners 36 Asian Games medal holders 33 Asian Championship medal holders 41 Arjuna awardees 51 Olympians 54 Asian Championships participants one Padma Bhushan and 11 Padma Sri for sports recipientsWhile public sector firms continue their policy of supporting sports through employment the private sector picks results over support especially in sports that enjoy visibility But DrsquoSouza says for efforts to bear spectacular results of the past we need to start young at schoolSequeira suggests we bring back the old races ldquoRain or no rain the Oval Maidan is available Marine Drive is too Why have one marathon a year And letrsquos forget about the seniors and focus on the juniorsrsquorsquo He hopes corporate sponsors will come forward to support a junior athletics meetTherersquos reason behind his hope He together with Nair is working towards planning a Tracktrotters comeback The club held its general body meeting recently which was attended by 60 members ldquoWe commit to try and regain the old glory of Mumbai athleticsrsquorsquo says Nair the clubrsquos vice presidentThe two hope to return to the splendor described best in a Sportsweek report dated 1983 on the Runathon ldquoPolice Commissioner Julio Ribeiro in a dashing Bombay Police tracksuit set the big field 491 to be exact off from Shivaji Park at 7 am Though the start was together in the classic Boston Marathon style for the different groups the race was terminated at different stages of the course At one stage the runners were strung out from Dadar down to Parel and Lalbaug over Currey Road and Lower Parel bridges and into the homestretchThe traffic police and the Naigaum police cooperated throughout in keeping the roads reasonably clear for the runners Savio DrsquoSouza Bombayrsquos and Mafatlalrsquos ace runner led the field right through at first a few lengths ahead then more finally striding almost alone king of the roadThere were runners from Track Trotters Atomic Energy Central School St Sebastians of Dabul Young Athletic Club Customs and Income Tax Captain Reza Beg of Air India was there The day before he was jogging in Tokyo On Sunday he took off with the rest of the runners from Shivaji ParkCourse completed he carefully logged his personal time in a logbook The regular early morning Shivaji Park joggers and walkers joined in including a 76 year oldveteran Later a special prize was announced for him but he had disappeared The prizes ranged from sports scholarships to silver cups HotShot cameras and other items Bombay has started running for fun Perhaps a little behind the rest of the world but it has startedrsquorsquoThe original version of this article first appeared on OutriggerWordPresscom