Vijayawada: Raghavendra elected AFI joint secretary

Vijayawada: Andhra Pradesh Athletic Association (APAA) former secretary A V Raghavendra has been elected as the joint secretary of the Athletic Federation of India (AFI) in the annual general body of the federation held at New Delhi on Saturday.

This is the highest position provided to an administrator from Andhra Pradesh post bifurcation.

The present secretary of APAA Hyma has been elected as the Executive Committee member of the federation and both were elected unanimously.

Raghavendra, working in Vijayawada Division of South Central Railway, is a product of Vijayawada sports school and represented Krishna District and later Andhra Pradesh in 400 m and 400 m hurdles. He took part in several district, rural and State meets from 1990 to 1995. He won medals in rural meets.

Later, Raghavendra trained eyes on administration and went on to become the secretary of Krishna District Athletic Association and later become secretary of Andhra Pradesh Athletic Association, post bifurcation.

He played an active role in organising several junior national athletic meets and also senior national held at Acharya Nagarjuna University in 2017. He also organised two South Zone meets – one at ANU and the other at Kakinada.

As a manager, he went along with Indian contingent to Asian meets at Doha (Qatar) and at Jakarta (Indonesia) in2018. He also actively participated in seminars and workshops on dope tests and perils of using the substance.

Hyma was actively involved in athletics participating in 100, 200, 400m and 4x100 relay. She took part in as many as 16 junior national meets in her 10 years career representing all age groups starting from under-14. She, on sports quota, joined the Indian railways and represented railways in the national meets for four years.

She became secretary of APAA in 2018 and represented India in an Asian level woman leadership seminar at Jakarta.