Pitter-patter, pitter-patter. Huff-puff, huff-puff.
If you'd walked into the Maharajas College Ground in Kochi, Kerala around 8 am on Monday morning, all you would have heard is the sound of spikes softly smacking into track, and the breathless exertions of those wearing said spikes. If not for a small sign around the main entrance, you'd have had no idea that this was India's elite track and field competition: the Federation Cup.
It wasn't the lack of signage or publicity, though, that kept the public away from the four-day event. From Monday to Thursday, the Fed Cup was held in the blazing heat of the Kochi morning and afternoon -- the afternoon sessions, when the finals were held, started at 2.30 PM and ending around 5.30PM. The sun's harsh glare was interrupted on a couple of days by light early evening showers, although all the rain did was add to the high humidity levels.
And so, for those four days, it was understandable that, apart from friends and family of the athletes, the only spectators were the occasional students who wandered over to check out what was going on in their college ground. (Oh, and on Tuesday afternoon, three drunk men who simply wanted to use the bleachers as a place to rest their heads).
Those who had a choice stayed away from the mind-warping heat. The athletes, though, didn't have one, and the conditions affected their performance. It's easy to see why; heat is not just numbers on the thermometer, its impact is far deeper.
In conditions barely suitable for a stroll on the pavement, athletes gave it their all to breach qualifying marks for the Asian Athletics Championships, and a fair few simply crumpled.
The heat was bad, but the humidity made things worse. There's a limit to the amount of electrolytes a body can consume to make up for the constant loss of it, and many athletes hit that limit.
National record holder in the 100m, Gurindervir Singh, for instance cramped up in the final -- it was his third 100m dash of the day, and the only thing surprising was that others didn't suffer similarly. Sachin Yadav, who won gold in the javelin, spoke about how heavy the air was, making it hard to find the right trajectory for the javelin.
With sports science coming to the fore, the importance of athlete recovery has never been clearer: but athletes here had to cope with the basics of post-event recovery. They struggled to find shade to cool down -- apart from a couple tents/shamianas erected around the track, the only place that served as protection from the relentless sun was the main stand, and the VIP seats. Several ran high fevers, including a few of the heptathletes (who along with the decathletes were worst hit by constant exposure to the sun).
This writer stumbled on a couple of them outside the stadium who had cramped up so bad they were wondering just how they were going to make the steps of the railway station to catch their trains.
This was all exacerbated by the fact that the finals session started at 2.30 PM in the afternoon (since the ground's floodlights are under repair) -- which meant athletes had to arrive at the track around noon to warm up (while trying not to overheat their bodies). The ground's warm up track -- a small 25m stretch of track -- added to the existing challenges.
On Thursday, new Athletics Federation of India president Bahadur Singh Sagoo was asked about the conditions, and whether the AFI had considered alternate venues with better climatic conditions. His reply: "We selected this venue because we are conducting trials for the Asian Championships. So, the temperature here is fine. All over India, especially in the north, will be very hot. So that's why we kept it here. You spoke about the floodlights not being in use here, there's no doubt about that. It's not possible to install the floodlights and other equipment [last minute], but we've organised it well here.
"We wanted maximum number of our athletes to qualify through the Asian Championships trials. We didn't want them to fall shorts of qualification marks due to the weather. That is the main reason."
Asked whether his federation was looking to make the sport more spectator-friendly, Sagoo said, "Spectators used to come before itself. These days, they prefer to watch it online or on social media. Spectators aren't coming... [*cue tangent*] but our results have improved in the last 15-20 years, we have stood on the world level. When I started at junior level, we had very low standards, we couldn't even think about the Asian Games."
When asked again about the spectators, he said, "If the crowds come and pamper the athletes, it's obviously good. We're trying that as well. We can [change times, etc, but] we have to go with the world and Asian athletics calendars. We have to follow that."
While it's not clear where either of those athletics calendars mandates this nation's top athletics event to be held on weekday afternoons, what is inarguable is that to sync with those, the AFI needs to hold their big events in peak Indian summers.
There are enough places in India, though, that even in April offer better weather than Kochi. And if it has to be Kochi, maybe organise floodlights to facilitate an evening or night session?
On Monday, in a parallel universe, Neeraj Chopra talked about bringing in the crowds for elite athletic events with his Neeraj Chopra classic. In Kochi, the Fed Cup was a stark reminder that outside Neeraj's iconic persona, casual interest in athletics -- even in a state that likes its track and field -- is minimal, and that events are not designed with either spectators or participants in mind.
On Friday, the AFI announced that 59 athletes have qualified for the Asian Athletics Championships, a few even broke (or equalled) national records at this meet. It'd be good to remember that all this happened despite the conditions... just like it did in 2023 in a scorching Ranchi, or 2024 in an even hotter Bhubaneswar. 2025 Kochi was just a continuation of a long-entrenched pattern. Through all this, the AFI's stance appears very clear: check boxes, talk in absolute numbers, go on tangents of growth, move on to the next event. For the athletes, meanwhile, there's very little they can do but grit their teeth, wipe the sweat off their brow and keep at it.