The Asian Track Cycling Championship that is scheduled to start in 10 days at the at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium has been thrown into jeopardy after the wooden veledrome has been damaged due to leakage in the roof after heavy downpour lashed national capital today.
Such was the situation that national team members, camping at the venue, were forced to skip training and were seen trying to cover the track with huge sheets of plastic.
A large part of the 400m wooden track near a bend has been affected as rainwater leaked through acrylic sheets on the rooftop of the stadium during the afternoon much to the horror of the cyclists and officials present at the veledrome.
The rain water which poured down was so much that the Indian cyclists and officials had to use buckets to remove the water from the plastic sheets. They continued the job till late in the evening before it was stopped with the stadium officials wanted to avoid undue media attention.
The 37th Asian Track Cycling Championships will be held at the IGI Stadium from February 6-10 with around 700 cyclists from 21 countries set to take part in it.
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This velodrome was constructed during the Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games and the goverment had spent more than Rs 200 crore on this facility. This velodrome is a prestigious venue as it has been made a World Cycling Satellite Training Centre last year, and it is considered one of the best in Asia.
Cycling officials said that the embarrasing situation, which may jeopardise the Asian Championships, was due to offical apathy as a similar situation of rain water leakage from the stadium rooftop has arisen during the Track Asian Cup at the same velodrome in Novemeber last year.
The government officials have assured that the repair work will be done but they have not kept their promise.
Cycling Federation of India Secretary Onkar Singh said he has informed the SAI officials to imemdiately address the matter and repair the track and the roof so that the Asian Track Championships is held as scheduled.
"I have informed the SAI officials about the situation at the velodrome which had resulted from the leakage of rainwater from the rooftop. I am keeping my fingers crossed and hoping that the SAI and Central Public Works Department (CPWD) immediately fix the peoblem so that the Asian Championships is held on time. Otherwise, it will be a huge embarrasment for the country," Onkar Singh told
