Olympian and Arjuna Awardee Adille Sumariwalla and Satish N. Uchil, both of Mumbai City District, were re-elected unopposed as President and Hon. General Secretary respectively of the Maharashtra Athletic Association (MAA) for the period 2020-2024 during the MAA elections and AGM which were conducted in Pune early this month. Abhay Chajjed of Pune District was also elected as Chairman of the association.
Adille Sumariwalla
The entire 25-member Executive Committee, which also included eight Vice-Presidents, a Hon. Treasurer, eight Joint Secretaries (Senior) and five Committee Members, according to a MAA media release. Three candidates were later co-opted as Members of the Committee.
The entire AGM and Election process was conducted under the supervision of Sunil Shinde (Election Officer, MAA) and Madhukankt Pathak (Treasurer, Athletics Federation of India) and Balasaheb Landge (Secretary General, Maharashtra Olympic Association), who were the two observers.
Satish N. Uchil
The MAA during its AGM also decided to appoint four Olympians and a couple of international athletes as Chairpersons of various Sub-Committees of the Association.
Olympian Kavita Raut was appointed Chairperson of the Athletes Commission, Olympian Lalita Babar was named as Chairperson of the Disciplinary Committee, Olympian Rachita Mistry is the Chairperson of Women Committee and Olympian Anand Menezes will be the Chairman of Marathon and Road Races Committee. Internationals Homiyar Mistry is the Chairman of the Selection Committee and Sharad Suryawanshi will be the Senior Joint Secretary.
President Sumariwalla proudly stated that MAA is witnessing a historic moment as there are five Olympians, including himself, who will be serving the association. “This is a historical moment for Indian sports as MAA comprises of Olympians and several international athletes nominated to the post of Chairperson of various Sub-Committees of the Association. They will be the integral part of the Executive Committee of the Association. Maharashtra Athletics Association is the only State Association in the country which has five Olympians in the Executive Committee. The focus is on Development of Athletics throughout Maharashtra.”
The Executive Committee (period 2020 – 2024):
President: Adille J. Sumariwalla (Mumbai City).
Chairman: Abhay Chajjed (Pune).
Vice-Presidents: Narayan Shankar Khadke (Nashik), Gopalsingh Rajput (Amravati), Sanjay Badole (Latur), Balaram Patil (Mumbai), Lalit Jiwani (Nagpur), Sanjay Patil (Kolhapur), Raju (Basavraj) Pyati (Pune), Srikant Joshi (Aurangabad).
Hon. General Secretary: Satish N. Uchil (Mumbai City).
Hon. Treasurer: Madhav Desai Shejul (Parbhani).
Hon. Joint Secretaries: Sharad Suryawanshi (Nagpur), Suresh Farakte (Kolhapur), Pankaj Balsakhale (Aurangabad), Dinesh Bhalerao (Pune), Atul Patil (Amravati), Pralobh Kulkarni (Latur), Ashok Aher (Mumbai), Hemant Pande (Nashik).
Committee Members: Rakesh Save (Palghar), Rajeev Joshi (Nashik), Ranjitsing Rane (Sindhudurg), Rajeev Kulkarni (Pune), Fulchand Salampure (Aurangabad), Co-opted – Rajesh Jadhav (Jalgaon), Ramesh Gangawane (Hingoli), Suresh Adpewar (Chandrapur).