To be an athlete, all you need is open space. Run, you can on the beach, the road, on play grounds and synthetic tracks. Athletics is the cheapest of all sport.

Not very long ago, athletic meets in the city had good participation. There were prestigious meets and schools, colleges produced good athletes.

Even now, the meets are held but the participation level has dropped. This is partly due to the academic pressures on the child, obsession of this nation with cricket and lack of awareness among parents.

How does one build awareness? Through the media of course. Unfortunately, the media is so involved in covering cricket matches, even masala matches. In a city like Mumbai, there are several meets, road races and other coaching camps held, there is plenty of prize money being distributed but very little coverage for athletic meets in newspapers. To get some footage on television, money is demanded from the organisers. How do you expect the sponsors to come rushing to us in such a kind of scenario?

The academic pressure is also taking a toll on students. Parents are adding to the pressure and athletics takes a backseat.

But that has not reduced the number of meets. On the contrary, the scene has only improved. The age groups have also diversified. Previously, there were only under-14, 16 and 18 age groups. Now, the under-8, 10, 12 have been added in the lower and under-20 and 22 in the upper categories.

There is another problem facing athletes from South Mumbai. With the Mumbai University not allowing anyone to practice at its ground at Marine Lines, athletes who want to make a career out of it have only Priyadarshini Park to go to. Even that is infested with people of all ages walking on the tracks.

A good athlete will make a good sportsperson and a healthy body. This in turn means a healthy nation.

The writer is a former national sprint champion