PANJIM: Twenty-eight judokas today appealed to Goa Judo Association to consider them for the State judo team for the 3rd Lusofonia Games to be held in Goa from November 2-10.
Whilst pointing out that there were two Goans – Rahul Desai and Vinod Palekar – in the State judo team for the 2nd Lusofonia Games held in Lisbon in 2009, the judokas stated they had apprehensions that this time, in order to win medals so as to showcase the sport, the squad could possibly have all contestants from outside Goa.
“As of now, we know nothing about the composition of the team. We are boys and girls who have been in the sport for the past 10-15 years and many of us won medals at the nationals, though not at the senior level. Certainly, you cannot put us in the category of top Indian judokas, like those from Punjab, whose only job is to practice and concentrate on judo. And, moreover we have no full time facilities. Many of us are working and we cannot afford to lose our jobs for the sake of judo. Neither, we get remuneration for taking up judo. But we are ready to undergo coaching and work hard so that we put up a good performance,” stated the young judokas who stressed that the Games are being held in Goa so that the local boys and girls are provided a chance to showcase the talent.
To buttress their contention, the judokas dished out a letter from SAG’s judo coaches – R V Shintre, Mir Dias, Deepak Netardekar, Vishant Alekar, Rahul Dessai – addressed to SAG’s Executive Director Sandeep Jacques on June 26 stating, “there are senior judo players practicing at our centre and fit to play in Lusofonia Games.”
Actually, the Lusofonia Games camp started on November 1, 2012 at Peddem with Shivkaran Kewat, Mukund Sawant, Datta Hinde, (girls) Snusha Gawas, Vaibhavi Kalangutkar, Pragati Kurtikar in attendance. The second phase ended in January 2013 with six judokas attending it and four of these being selected for the senior nationals held in Orissa from December 27-30 with Pragati going into the second round.
“We are all set to work hard with utmost dedication and a positive attitude so that we win medals. We need to be given an opportunity to compete, much more so as the event is being hosted in Goa for the sake of Goan sportspersons. We need more exposure, more competitions on regular basis like the ones being organised in taekwondo in Goa if we have to improve,” reiterated the judokas, who yesterday had a meeting with the association president Gurudatta Bhakta and GOA president Shripad Naik.
Meanwhile, Bhakta was non-committal about the State team for the Games saying that it was necessary to field a strong team which could eventually win medals. “I cannot say anything about the composition of the team at this moment,” he added.
It may be recalled that at the meeting of GOA with the State associations, it was decided that players from outside Goa could be invited to be part of the squads. Volleyball, basketball, table tennis, taekwondo, athletics, football coaching camps are already in progress with all Goan players. Whether players from other parts of India would be selected later on is not known so as to create an impression that the Goa teams have some standard and are not labelled as also run. So far, it is only taekwondo which has earned medals including a gold in both the Lusofonia Games in 2006 Macau and 2009 Lisbon.
