HANGZHOU: After another pair of controversies surrounding India's athletes at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre Stadium on Wednesday, senior vice-president of the Athletes Federation of India (AFI), Anju Bobby George, said this was 'calculated' and used the word 'cheating'. She also said 'they are disturbing our athletes' while not specifying who they were. Here's a detailed look at what transpired during the men's javelin final which prompted this outburst.
What happened?
After Chao-Tsun Cheng, who opened the event, fouled, Neeraj Chopra, second in the order, hurled the spear. It looked like a very good throw and sailed over the 85m mark. However, before any official recording came up on the big screen -- or was registered by the judges -- Abdulrahman Alazemi, third in the list, threw. This led to all kinds of chaos.
Wait, a legal Chopra throw led to a 'no mark' against his name?
Erm, no, this is where it gets complicated. The officials didn't complete measuring Chopra's throw before the Kuwaiti's throw. There was even a technical issue. As soon as the Kuwaiti threw, Chopra went to the judges' table to query about his mark. As soon as he got no suitable response, he protested it.
What were the judges' response?
The outfield judges huddled together with the ones sitting next to the runway. After a while, the judges returned to their original position. But, in a scene that would be out of place even in school meets, they started going through the grass to find the spot where Chopra's javelin landed. It made for surreal viewing as the judges bent down to see whether they could find a dent on the ground to complete the measurement as well as restart the competition that had now been halted for over 10 minutes.
Did they find the mark?
Shortly afterwards, Chopra decided to give up the ghost as he started feeling bad for his fellow competitors. "Surprisingly, they didn't measure. I am still puzzled," Chopra said. "It was breezy and other athletes were cooling down and it was getting unfair on them. So they offered me a re-throw and I accepted."
When did Anju react to the chaos?
After the event, won by Chopra, Anju met the media. There, she said: "This is calculated. They are cheating us, they are trying to disturb our athletes. Winning in China is hard..." The AFI will write to the authorities concerned to get an official explanation as to what caused the fiasco.
What did Chopra make of the whole thing?
He admitted there was something wrong but stopped short of spreading any conspiracy theories. "It happened with Jyothi (Yarraji), me, and (Kishore) Jena. So there's something wrong but still, we have shown how hard we've worked and won medals. I haven't seen anything like this in a big tournament. Athletes can get mentally down, even Jyothi was affected."
Wait, there was a problem with Jena's measurement?
So, after Jena's second throw, the judges had initially red-flagged his throw. However, he had not. Chopra intervened and only then did the officials realise they had made a mistake and allowed the measurement to be taken.