CHENNAI: A day after the Asian Games-bound wushu player tested positive, it is learnt that the karate team of India has not been accepted by the Asian Karate Federation. Despite India sending entries for the Games at Hangzhou, there might not be any team as of now.
The reason for the non-participation was apparently because the Asian Karate Federation has not accepted the entries of the Indian contingent. It held the Indian contingent ineligible because the names have not been approved by the National Sports Federation of karate which is recognised by the Asian and World Karate Federation.
That means the team selected by the Sports Authority of India has not been accepted by the AKF. Matters were complicated by the fact that the sports ministry did not give recognition to the Karate India Organisation (KIO) for violation of the National Sports Development Code of India.
According to a status report submitted in the Delhi High Court recently, it is clear that the matter had been dragging on for quite some time. To make matters more complicated, the WKF had written to the IOA saying it recognised KIO as the legitimate NSF in India and any athlete who is not part of the KIO will not be eligible to take part in international competitions
According to the report: “The IOA representative informed that a communication dated 14th June, 2023 was received from President, WKF addressed to the President, IOA stating that KIO is the sole WKF representative Karate body in India to select the athletes for International events held under the auspices of IOC, WKF and their representative continental bodies. Accordingly, the trials event where the selection of athletes for the Asian Games, 2022 will be taking place, will need to strictly limit the participation to those affiliated members of KIO.” The SAI, however, selected the team during the selection trials overseen by coaches of para-military forces and the SAI was not authorised by the KIO.
The Delhi High Court on July 10 said, “Union of India, Karate India Organisation and IOA are directed to sit together to find out solutions to the issue so that a team can represent the country in the upcoming Asian Games…” Accordingly, a meeting was convened under the chairmanship of sports ministry’s joint secretary, SAI, KIO and IOA and they decided to conduct another round of trials to select the best possible athletes. Interestingly, they chose the date as July 15, the last date of submission of entry by names for the Games.
Sanjeev Kumar Jangra, the secretary of the KIO, wrote a letter stating that the time given for trials was very short. This was informed through a letter that stated that SAI had decided to hold the trials the next day at 1 pm (July 15) only the previous night (July 14). The SAI felt they had done whatever they could to send the best possible team.
The KIO official also said that they, according to the circular of the sports ministry, had submitted top eight names in various categories. But the names were not accepted. “We don’t know whose names were finally sent,” said Jangra.
What seems intriguing is that the IOA was also represented in the meeting and they had not sent any karate players’ names affiliated to KIO earlier in March when the long list was sent. As expected, the Asian Games organising committee told the IOA they cannot accept any more names on July 15. Karate is not alone. The way things are, the newly-elected basketball federation may face the same problem as their recognition by the international federation is still not clear.
IOA writes to NSFs
To save blushes, it is learnt the IOA has written to NSFs to declare if they are affiliated with the International and Asian Federations. The IOA has said in its letter said “The Director (technical), the IOA is therefore required to ensure that all entry forms by name being processed for the Asian Games are from NSFs which are duly recognised by their Asian and International Sports Federations. The forms should be validated against the recognition status of the International and Asian Sports Federations to prevent any discrepancies.”
Interestingly, the Olympic Council of Asia had written a letter to the IOA in March and had said that no entries would be entertained if IFs and Asian bodies don't recognise the NSF. The IOA has asked all NSFs to “submit a suitable affidavit that they are recognized by their respective Asian and International Sports Federations and the entry by name forms have been signed by them after conducting selection trials and there are no disputes/litigations with respect to the names submitted to the IOA…” And also that the said federation is elected according to their constitution and there are no legal cases pending against them.