Athletics Association of Bihar

Athletics activity in Bihar was initially controlled and managed by Bihar Olympic Association. In the year 1967 Bihar Amateur Athletics Association came in existence. Mr. B.N. Basu was its first President and Mr. Shivendra Mohan Chaudhary was the Hony. Secretary .Companies and departments like TISCO, TELCO, BCCL, BSL, TCSA, Bihar Police were its affiliates.
TELCO & TISCO were providing job opportunity to the Medal winners of National Athletics Championships and in such way most of the top athletes belonging to different states were in Bihar. The job opportunities being provided by those companies had two types of effect.
One that Bihar was dominating in Inter State Athletics Championships and Bihar State was champion for more than a decade continuously. In the year 1980 when the athletes belonging to Haryana and working in Bihar shifted their loyalty to domicile state and so Bihar lost its position of Champion.
The second effect was that no one athlete daring to compete with the star athletes of the country with a fear, that they will be nowhere because of first four position will be captured by those national champions. As such athletes were ignoring participation in state championships. So at that time the Bihar State Championships was a competition only among those companies and departmental teams.
In the year 1982 election of BAAA was held. Shree B. N. Prasad (IPS) and Shree Swaraj Ganguly were elected President and Secretary respectively. They continued till 1986. This was the period when athletics activity was spread towards the districts and 17 new District Athletics Association came in existence. A new competition in the name and style of Bihar Inter District athletics Championship was started in the year 1983 and firstly it was organized by at Gumla. A State Cross Country Championships was also started trough a Tournament Committee at Gumla. It has given a boost to athletics in Bihar. Emergence of son of the soil was seen during the period. Athletes like Saroj Lakra, Gyan PrakashLakra, Vijay Nilmani Khalko, Pushpa Ekka, Budhwa Oraon, Gurwari Hembrum and many others shown their identity at National level. Most of them had the opportunity to represent India at different stages.
In the year 1987 January, election of the office bearers of BAAA was held. Shri S.K.Jha and Shri A.K.Kesri were elected President and Hony. Secretary of the Association respectively. In ’87 January Bihar Athletics team participated at Banglore in Junior National Championships. The performance of Bihar team was very poor, as it has collected only 7 points including one bronze medal and its position was 23rd among 25 states.
Very next year in 1988, Bihar came on 9th position in overall points tally in Junior National Championship at Jallundhar. In the year 1999 during the Junior National Championships at Banglore Bihar achieved 4th position in overall ranking and become champion in one age group and also runners-up in another one. Shree Rakesh Kumar Singh had created a new National Record in Javelin throw event
It was the height of Bihar Athletics when in the year 1990 it became overall Champion defeating Kerala with a huge margin of 112 points. Bihar bagged 269 points restricting Kerala on 157 points pushing them on 2nd position.
During this period a number of athletes selected in the Indian team and represented India in different International Championships. Those athlete are Miss Vijay Nilmani Khalko, Pushpa Ekka, Kameshwar Ravidas, Shree Sudhir Kumar Singh, Shree Brikesh Kumar Singh
On 26th October, 1990 election of Bihar Athletics Association was held. Some aggrieved persons gone to Court of Law against that election. It was the time from where the down fall of Bihar athletics was started and brought down Bihar Athletics from top to bottom.
Some more details to be added………………….