Mangalore : The Athletic Federation of Indias plans to raise Indias medal hopes in the 4×100 meters womens relay in the ongoing Asian Athletics Championships in Pune, by including athlete Ashwini Akkunji who has completed her two year ban after she failed to pass the dope test, did not materialize after the Competition Technical Delegate of the championship, refused to do so citing that it would be against rules of IAAF.
It is learnt, one of the two-member competition technical delegate, Yukio Seki from Japan said that no athlete would be allowed to be included now as doing that would violate the IAAF and AAA competition rules as the final entries have been frozen on June 20.
“The meeting of technical delegates of all the countries held before the Asian Championships also decided that no additional member from any country will be allowed after June 20 and once the competition starts,” he said.
Sources said Akkunji could have had a chance of taking part in the Championships if India had made a request to the competition technical delegate that an athlete would be named later.
The 4x400m relay event begins with the heats on July 4, Saturday and ends on the final day tomorrow.