KOCHI: Athlete PU Chitra has approached the Kerala High Court seeking a directive to the Athletic Federation of India to pay Rs 50 lakh as compensation to her for denying opportunity to represent India at the World Athletics Championship held in London recently.
Chitra also sought a directive to the Central Government for framing guidelines for the selection of athletes to participate in the national and international competitions and to publish them on the website.
The Single Judge had issued an interim order directing the AFI to ensure participation of Chitra in the 1,500 m race in the World Championships.
According to Chitra, despite the order, the AFI failed to take effective steps to comply with the order. The plea said a contempt of court case against the AFI was pending before the Division Bench.The AFI had denied her the opportunity stating she was not the fastest runner and the Indian junior champion ran on faster timings in the Guntur meet.
However, the junior champion could not be selected since she did not have the entry qualification timings. But, Chitra had won a gold medal in the Asian championships and qualified for the world meet.
The performance of an athlete or any sportsman cannot be predicted. “Even legends like Usain Bolt do not perform on all days as can be seen from his performance in the recent World Athletic Championship,” she said in the petition.
The plea stated denying her an opportunity in the absence of any other qualified athlete in India was clearly an arbitrary decision. According to her, the performance of India in the World Championships was self-speaking. She further requested the court to issue a directive to frame guidelines for selection of coaches and publish the qualification criteria of the coaches selected by AFI on their official website.