Bengaluru: Six athletes, including two reserves, are in the team for the Asian Athletics Championship to be held in Wuhan, China, from June 3 to 7. Last-minute selection trials were held at the Sree Kanteerava stadium on Wednesday to help the Indian men’s 4x100m relay squad attain the qualifying mark of 39.18 seconds. They qualified by attaining a time of of 39.11 seconds. However, a seventh athlete, who was not a part of the squad named on paper anchored the race to the qualifying time!
The trial was conducted under the supervision of AFI secretary CK Valson and national sprints coach Dmitry Vanyaikin of Ukraine, and it was a vigilant media that informed Valson of the switch.
The athlete in question, actually did not know the implications of what was being done, when he revealed his name as Manikanda Arumugam and struck a pose for photographers and celebrated with the team. Manikanda Arumugam took the place of Praveen Muthukumar. The other members of the racing team were identified as Jyothi Shankar Debnath Krishna Kumar Rane, Amiya Kumar Mallick. The trial started 90 minutes late.
The celebrations among the support staff turned into a damp squib, when SAI coach Srinivas, who assists the Ukrainian trainer of the team, Vanyaikin, identified the fourth runner as Arumugam and the media pointed out the discrepancy.
one of the main runners, Dharambir Singh, did not participate in the trials citing lack of baton-exchange practice, AFI officials or the coaches had no explanation to offer when asked why the reserve runners – Praveen or Abdul Qureshi – were not fielded as replacement.
Valson, who was also the observer for the trials, said, “It’s up to the selection committee to decide whether they want to consider this performance or not. Arumugam is not part of the team. He can’t go as of now, but we will try for a late entry. If the selection committee wants a re-trial, it will be conducted. I have also spoken to the coach and will have a discussion with him later. According to SAI sources, Vanyaikin would be questioned before a decision is taken.
