My inter-IIT sports meet experience
23 IITs. 7+ days. 13 sports events. Inter-IIT Sports Meet is the longest running inter-collegiate meet in India since 1961. It is one of the most prestigious events which IITs look forward to.
I represented IIT Delhi as a part of its athletics team in the 54th Inter-IIT Sports Meet held at IIT Kharagpur and IIT Bhubneswar. Our IIT’s overall contingent size was 155 members, which comprised of the best of the institute from first-year UG to PhD students, otherwise totalling a 10k+ population. Inter-IIT lives up to the name it holds, with athletes practicing all round the year to compete in it along with handling their rigorous academic curriculum. Every year, there are new records and better improvements. For most, in the front, there’s honour that comes with participating in the meet and at its back — hundreds of hours of practice and sweat put into perfecting that start, jump, goal or throw. Coaches put in the best to see their teams winning, always encouraging and pointing out mistakes. Before the meet in the holidays, we have several practice sessions throughout the day, special meal arrangements and also a final contingent dinner with the director and deans where they advice and wish us the best.
The 54th Inter-IIT Sports Meet was held from 14th to 22nd December, 2019. We landed in Kolkata in the noon hours of 12th December. It took us a 3 hour journey through bus to reach IIT Kharagpur. IIT Kharagpur, as it was known, was very isolated from the main city. Like the defending champions we had been, we were all determined to be the best this year as well. The living arrangements were very well taken care of. Spacious rooms with 3 students in one with new mattresses, pillows, blankets and a small bag of toiletries. Within a few hours of reaching the institute and settling we were back to the athletics track. A newly built beautiful synthetic track, named the Jnan Gosh Stadium. During that time, there were full teams of few IITs present, practicing. The best teams stay and practice together, a conclusion drawn from the results every year. We warmed up and had a feel of the track that day. We had to come to that track for the next 10 days everyday.
The next day was an exploration day. As our routine through the practice days, we were up early and on track to practice. This time there were more teams present, everyone engrossed in their practice. Like many in my team, it was my first meet and I was in awe seeing so many athletes practicing at once in their respective IIT’s tracksuits or jerseys. It felt so good, realizing that every one of them was going to compete for their IIT in the coming days. As every meet, there were talks. Talks of previous year winners, star players, predictions and expectations. The events were going to start the next day. Those with events had rest from practice the day before their event day. When practices came to end and it was cooldown time, music could be heard from various teams’ stretching areas. This then became a norm for all evening practices. Later that day, we were given our identity cards which had to be scanned for all the meals and other events. We were still getting used to our surroundings. Some liked the food, some didn’t; but everyone liked the environment.
The evening of 14th had the opening ceremony with speeches, march past and torch-lighting. There were athletes of all 23 IITs, in their tracksuits with their respective flags in front. As every contingent passed the stage, the hosts spoke about their respective IITs. Except as funny as it gets, they forgot to do that for us, as we were the first one to go being past year winners. The enthusiasm for what was to come was in the air.
And hence, the meet started. While a lot of events were held on 14th, athletics events were going to start on 15th. Athletics, basketball, cricket, hockey, football and more. When we were free, we slipped off to other sports events to watch them. Cheer for our team, or if not ours then for the teams playing. In Athletics, we cheered in every slot every day because we had players in all events. From heats to finals; running, jumping and throwing all mornings and evenings. We cheered and anticipated good results. Everyone did that for their institutes. There were mini celebrations everyday. Our track and field team was one of the best and what I learnt from my team was the integrity everyone showcased despite the results. It was the support and encouragement that everyone gave to each other which made our team what it was. Along with that, everyone had their fair share of enjoyment and fun when it wasn’t practice or event time. When it was helping time, we filled up glucose bottles, had snacks and took care of all the needs the participants from our team would require. Everyone whose event wasn’t on that day fell in the helping team. Being one of the only two freshers on the athletics team, I didn’t feel excluded even if I hadn’t known my team for long. While the respective teams were handled by their captains, the contingent was led by different heads who acted as bridge between different sports and were responsible to coordinate and give news of wins & losses. My event was high jump, and while I didn’t do good enough in the spur of the moment, my teammates and friends didn’t let me go down. Somewhere in between when we got time, we explored the campus, roamed around and discovered new things.
Apart from the main events going on, there were other programmes too. We had two pronites featuring Jubin Nautiyal and Julia Bliss. I didn’t attend either but heard from others that they were quite fun. There were also other small activities in the days for entertainment. On the second last day, we had the Gala dinner night. The Gala dinner night is a tradition of the meet which is open to all participants. This time it had entry with our ID cards. There was dance, music and a lot of delicious food. While we were supposed to dress up all nice for this night, several of us ended up in our tracks because we had directly come after cheering and watching our basketball team win at the basketball court. It’s typical athlete behaviour to go everywhere in sportswear and many are proud of it.
There were injuries along with the wins and losses. In athletics, meet records were broken too. When all the athletics events ended, there were fireworks around the track, handshakes, dance and music. We emerged as winners in girls and runner up in boys. IIT Kharagpur vice-versa. The second runner’s up were IIT Kanpur. These were the full teams practicing on the very first evening. Overall in all sports, we emerged as runner’s up and IIT Kharagpur as winners. The last day marked the closing ceremony. Trophies and medals were given out and a lot of photos were taken. We ran on the track for the last time, and had informal races and jumps. Graduating seniors gave pep talks and motivation for the next meet. And even if the hosts were accused of bias towards their teams, IIT Kharagpur had been a good host and we thanked them for it. We left the campus that night to fly back, and thus this wonderful experience came to an end.
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Originally written on Quora: https://www.quora.com/Can-you-share-some-of-your-experience-at-Inter-IIT-sports-meet/answer/Divyanka-Chaudhari
