This is a photo graph of the Swimming pool at Balewadi at
Pune. This is where the state trials where held and where Jispa participated to
win her relay gold. Beautiful isn’t it? Lovely infrastructure. This is part of
the larger sports village. There are separate arenas for different sports. Coming
at the first seemed like a cultural shock. We first passed the athletics track.
As I walked ahead I realized that it was just the warm up track. The main track
and stadium was elsewhere. Wow. Two synthetic tracks? Not bad. Then you have
badminton, weightlifting and even an AstroTurf practice hockey ground. Pretty cool.
I thought India has finally arrived. We stayed at the business hotel that is
within the sports village area. We were recommended to stay here even though
there were athlete hostel facilities. And since all our friends were staying
here, we didn’t mind too much.
So we first enter this massive aquatics stadium to be
greeted by a huge spectator stand (rightly facing east) and massive swimming
pools. See the picture. In front is the main swimming pool with starter stands
on the left and right, full out 50 mtrs, touch pads on the left for finishing,
a massive digital board, a huge diving pool on the right with platform and
spring boards, then a full size fully equipped warm up pool (or an extra pool
for heats) at the back of the main pool, and the best of all, a cool down pool
at the extreme left. You can see it behind the shamiana, and of course the
lovely stands with colored bucket seats. There are even the shower and washroom
facilities for the athletes in the structure you see next to the warm up pool
on the right. Nice infrastructure, thoughtfully built and definitely spent a
bomb.
Then you see closer. The water you see is green in color. That’s
not photo tricks. Its actually green and dirty. So bad that you can easily see
the bottom. So the swimmers really need to look hard to know when it is time to
turn. The filtration is clearly not up to mark. Then see the diving pool on the
right. Here the water is so bad that you can’t even see the floor. All you see
is a green patch of water with some crap in it. then you see the seats, dirty
and unclean. Everyone has to wipe the seats before you sit. And of course the
loos. No water in the loo or in the showers. None. The taps are bone dry. So
even if you have to go potty, do be smart and carry a toilet paper. And if you
feel hungry or thirsty – no food, no canteen, and yes no water coolers. afterwards i saw one table behind teh stands selling boiled egg, pastries and some poha and bottled water. So much for nutrition. And no
detailed schedule of events and no commentary of events. My GOD.
We spent all the money on building the infrastructure and
now we have no money to keep in decent shape. Even for the prestigious state
level championship meet. What on earth is going on?
On another day I asked Jispa, “When you swim in the competition
can you actually see left or right if your competitors are ahead of behind you?”.
“ya, ofcourse, I see them and I know if I am ahead or behind”, she answered, “but
in this Pune competition, the water was dirty and I couldn’t see anything”. There,
Maharashtra state’s top event is held at the top stadium in an elite sports
complex and the water is so dirty that you can’t see the other swimmers.
And yes the touch boards. You would have guessed out by now
that they don’t work. But the fun part doesn’t end there. Not only did they not
work, but on the second day the competition was delayed by around two hours
thanks to them. Well how can not-working boards delay the event? Because these
non-working boards gave an electric shock to one the participants and they had
to delay the event to figure out and solve the problem.
Indian sports is clearly in safe hands.
