PRAYAGRAJ, June 25 -- India has no dearth of talent like Olympic gold medalist Neeraj Chopra, but the country needs more and more 'Chopras' to become an athletics powerhouse in the future. So, said Asian Games gold medallist Ashwini Akkunji, who understands the track and field talent in India better than most. Udupi girl Akkunji has seen the world of athletics from close quarters. Even after facing a two-year ban for an alleged use of banned substance in 2011 prior to the Asian Athletics Championships in Kobe (Japan), she stands tall and is working hard for the development of athletics in India. Her perspective for sport has changed ever since she joined the National Centre of Excellence, Bengaluru as coach. Akkunji was here with her four trainees for the 23rd national Junior U20 Federation Athletics Championships, and found that such events give a chance to youngsters to test their skills before big events around the globe. "We have a strong crop of youngsters in the game and I feel that the future of India in athletics is quite bright and what these youngsters need is more hard work, dedication and courage so that they can do well at the international level," said Akkunji. "There is a huge change in the set-up of athletics in India ever since Neeraj won gold at the U20 World Athletics in 2016, and I can feel this change as now we have a big pool of talent and more and more youths are getting attracted towards the sport," Akkunji said. "In fact, we need many athletes like Neeraj Chopra, who can make India a powerhouse in athletics. We already have a rich history of producing greats like Milkha Singh, PT usha and even Anju Bobby George in the past, and now our athletes need to exploit the facilities for good," said Akkunji, who had both in 400m hurdles and 4x400m relay golds at the 2010 Asian Games at Guangzhou after winning a gold in the 4x400m relay at the 2010 Commonwealth Games at New Delhi. She admitted that coaching has changed her perspective for the game. "It's an altogether different experience for me as now I see it with a very different approach. Now, I don't run, but tell boys and girls how to run and win," she said. About her coaching experience so far, Akkunji elaborates on the challenges she has faced. "The experience is really different. As an athlete, there is immense pressure to perform. However, it is not that the coach has no pressure. However, being an athlete myself, I feel athletes have more pressure in their career than the coach. But I manage both of them very well because I know how to handle the athletes and the situation and the circumstances. So, it's still good working with these athletes." Akkunji also said that the modern day athletes as well as coaches are quite educated with the changing world of sports. "Now, the sport has involvement of science, including psychologists, trainers, physio etc., and this has changed the scenario of the game in the world. In our days, we had no such knowledge about the game but now with the involvement of science, things have changed drastically." "Learning never ends and if you want to compete with world class athletes, you need to be updated each time and a lot of things to be applied also. In our time, we didn't apply many things, but now I feel that we have to apply so many things," she added. Akkunji finds that the atmosphere for female athletes in India too has changed in a big way and that's a big positive for the sport. "There are a lot of positive changes for women athletes in India and I feel like our women athletes should also come up at the world level. Competition is tough for women athletes, but I find young Indian athletes good enough to conquer the world of athletics in future," she said....