Indian athletics High Performance Director Volker Herrmann resigns ahead of Tokyo Olympics

In a surprising move, Volker Herrmann, the High Performance Director of Athletics Federation of India has decided to leave his post. The German took to Facebook on Saturday evening and announced that he resigned from his post three weeks ago.

"Working in high performance sports requires a high level of expectations. Numerous athletes and teams all around the world, supported by their coaches and staff, are competing with the one goal to be the best at a particular date. Only one will succeed," he shared on Facebook.

Herrmann's post from Facebook on Saturday

"After one and a half fruitful and inspiring years in India, the day has come when I could not any longer meet the self-imposed expectations coming along with the role of AFI’s high-performance director, which is why I resigned from my position three weeks ago," he explained.

"I believe that athletics in India has a great future ahead of it. It requires a conducive and likewise sustainable infrastructure to support its countless talented athletes and coaches. It also needs players with a strong, confident, and independent mindset to succeed at world stage," he concluded.

It was just on October 9, Herrmann had shared a post on preparing the team for the upcoming Olympic games, "We just started our preparation for #tokyo2020 Performance tracking of the Indian athletes and a rewarding discussion with our coaches," he wrote.

Considering he was busy plotting the road map for Indian athletics in the Olympics, his resignation comes as a startling development with speculations of a rift with the AFI.

Also read: Forgotten Heroes: Mohinder Singh Gill – Olympian and Asian Games champion who retired at 29