Muristek
Vinayak Padmadeo
New Delhi, June 9
In yet another instance of alleged harassment, a female sailor has written a complaint against a national coach for making her "uncomfortable".
The Indian team is currently training in Germany and participated in the Sailing World Cup last week. The names of the sailor and coach are being withheld as the complaint is under probe.
In her complaint, the sailor wrote how the coach was not behaving well with her and made her uncomfortable.
It is understood that the sailor had previously complained against the coach to the federation. This latest complaint, which was sent to the senior officials of the Sports Authority of India (SAI) and the Sports Ministry, was a last ditch attempt to get the situation resolved. She signed off the letter with, "Please help."
SAI is looking into the matter. "SAI has received the complaint from the athlete. The camp is being run by the federation and we are seeking clarification from the federation in this matter," SAI told The Tribune.
Jitendra Dixit, joint secretary general of the Yachting Association of India (YAI), clarified that the complaint was made because the coach in question was a hard taskmaster.
"YAI never received any complaint from her," Dixit said. "It was sent to the director general of SAI. After SAI got in touch with us, we held an online meeting in which she clarified that she had sent those complaints to her parent club, which is the NSS Bhopal," he added.
"During the interaction we gathered that the coach wanted her to improve her timings, which don't meet the world standard at the moment. The complaint was made because the coach is a hard taskmaster and we will send the same details as part of our report to SAI," he added.
Earlier this week, a female cyclist had accused a national coach of making sexual advances towards her on two different occasions during a training-cum-competition programme in Slovenia. The coach was sacked by SAI yesterday.