Hyderabad tartan track opening delay worries athletes

KARACHI: The Sindh sports department has failed to inaugurate the newly-laid tartan track in Hyderabad with the summer vacations of school-children coming to an end.

Sindh government has announced that it will lay tartan tracks in three cities by the end of this year. One has been laid in Hyderabad. Another is to be laid in Karachi. It is pertinent to mention here that there is urgent need for a track in the province because the only existing one, in Karachi at PSB’s coaching centre, is more than 20 years old and the federal government has not bothered to replace it. It completed its life several years ago.

A tartan track can be used for a maximum of 15 to 16 years. The athletics fraternity was expecting that the Hyderabad track would be inaugurated soon and the Sindh Athletic Association (SAA) and educational institutions would be able to organise athletics event there.

But so far neither the Hyderabad one has been inaugurated nor the provincial government has announced where it would lay the track in Karachi. The third city has also not been named. The athletics fraternity has appealed to the PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto and Sindh chief minister Murad Ali Shah to take notice in the delay.

Imran Khan, a former national decathlon champion, said it is surprising that the track has been laid but is not being inaugurated. He said that disuse might lead to deterioration in the quality of the track. Imran said that Sindh government should also consider how these tracks would be used because there were many groups in the province’s athletics community.