KOCHI: There is some bad news for Indian athletics. Though three 50km racewalkers had made the cut for the London World Championship, none of them will be able to participate in the biennial event. The reason is shocking. The competition where they attained the qualifying mark had a course measurer who didn’t hold the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF)/ Association of International Marathons and Distance Races (AIMS) grade.
As per IAAF rules, to ratify a performance valid for achievement of entry standards, the race course must be measured by an IAAF/AIMS-approved Grade A or B international measurer, and three minimum international or area racewalking judges should be on duty.
However, at the National Racewalking Championship in New Delhi in February, the race-course measurer didn’t meet the stipulation, thereby rendering the timings of Sandeep Kumar, Jitender Singh and Chandan Singh ineligible for qualification. With each country getting a maximum of three slots, disqualification of the trio means India will have no competitor in the 50km event.
The World Championship qualification mark stands at 4:06.00. Sandeep, who came first in Delhi, had clocked 3:55.59, while Jitender finished on 4:02.11. Chandan came third with 4:04.18. Since the event will not be counted as a qualifying competition, and there are no more events left to make the cut, the road is more or less closed for the trio.
An Athletics Federation of India (AFI) official reckoned that the three athletes won’t be able to qualify elsewhere due to lack of events.
“They won’t be able to participate in London,” the AFI official said. Though there has been no official communication from AFI, an insider said the measurer’s grading certification had expired while he was officiating in Delhi. Though Sandeep has also made the cut in 20km racewalking, he might not be able to make it to the squad. Seven, including the former, have qualified for 20km. But the fact that Sandeep is a 50km specialist might pose a hurdle. The last 20km he participated in was the Inter-state Championship in Guntur a few days ago where he had clocked a poor 1:27:01.
Meanwhile, athletes who will miss the London bus aired their anger at AFI for not arranging a graded course measurer. “All our hard work has gone to waste. Since we were not told about this predicament earlier, we didn’t participate in other events,” one of the athletes told Express. The AFI mix-up might have cost the 20km walkers as well had they not qualified elsewhere. Irfan, Devender and Ganapathi had finished below the stipulated 1:24:00 mark. But fortunately, Ganapathi and Devender had already crossed the qualifying mark in 2016, while Irfan did it this year in Nomi City, during the Asian Racewalking Championship.
The AFI on Tuesday conducted a fitness test for three 20km racewalkers in Dharamshala. KT Irfan, Devender Singh and K Ganapathi who attained the qualifying mark took part while Gurmeet Singh and Manish Rawat gave it a miss. Sources say the trio are favourites for final selection.
Shan.as@newindianexpress.com