CHENNAI: In an interesting turn of events, several top athletes of the country had to rush back to India without competing at the Qosanov Memorial athletics event in Almaty, Kazakhstan. It all started as a bizarre 'Did Not Start' (DNS) in the 400m men's event during the heats in the morning session on Saturday. There were surprise misses too. Sprinters Hima Das and Srabani Nanda could not catch their flight to Almaty due to visa issues.
Some of the top men's quarter-milers like Noah Nirmal Tom, Amoj Jacob, Ramesh Rajesh and Arokia Rajiv had a DNS against their names. Throwers Tajinder Pal Singh Toor and Annu Rani are expected to come back without participating. It is understood that Arokia could not start because he reached late on Friday.
The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) confirmed that some of the athletes had to come back because they managed to get an appointment with the US embassy for visa at the last moment. And athletes who qualified for the World Championships in Oregon are the ones who would be returning. According to AFI, they are trying to reschedule some of the events in the morning so that athletes can participate before returning.
According to the AFI, it had taken quite some time, around two-three months to get the appointment. The AFI said that they had to take the help of the Ministry of External Affairs and the sports ministry and after much wrangling, they managed the appointment for those who don't already have a US visa. AFI said they did not want to take a chance since they need to send athletes to the US as early as possible so that they can acclimatise.
There were a few medal winners too, but their efforts were not too impressive. Some of them performed way off their personal best. In women's shot put, national record holder Manpreet Kaur, who breached the 18-metre mark in Chennai during the inter-state athletics, could manage only 14.24m in her only valid throw, while Abha Khatua won gold with 16.71m. Kiran Pahal won gold in the 400m with a timing of 52.54s, while Summy won bronze with a timing of 53.70s.
In 100m women, national record-holder Dutee Chand managed silver clocking 11.49s and MV Jilna, who was added to the Commonwealth Games 4x100 team a couple of days ago, won bronze with a time of 11.61s. In discus, Kirpal Singh won gold with a throw of 59.22m which he managed in the last attempt. In the women's 1500m, Chanda won gold in 4:24.44s which is way off her personal best of 4:13.85s achieved in Chennai a few days ago. Later in the evening, the 4x100m relay team (whosoever could participate) was disqualified because of a technical disqualification.
Long jumper Mohammed Anis finished on top with a jump of 8.04m, which he managed in his third attempt.