PU Chithra Trains Amid Murmurs of AFI Moving Supreme Court

A day after the Kerala High Court instructed the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) to include Asian 1500m champion PU Chithra in the Indian squad for the next month’s World Championships, there were murmurs that AFI would move the Supreme Court against the interim order of the single bench.

However, the AFI has not filed a counter in Ernakulam court, and Chithra’s lawyer says that it was unlikely that the Supreme Court would admit AFI’s petition, if it decides to do so.

Chithra’s passport is with the AFI, and she will have to wait till Monday to know about her fate vis-à-vis her competing at the August 4-13 World Championships in London. At the moment, she is training with the Indian squad in Ooty.

“We are yet to hear anything from the AFI. At the moment, we are in Ooty, training,” Chithra’s coach Sijin NS told Outlook from Ooty.

Chithra, who won the 1500m gold with a personal best time at the Asian Athletics Championships (AAC2017) in Bhubaneswar this month and automatically qualified for the World Championships, was excluded from the Indian squad on the basis of her poor timings at the Inter-State Championships in Guntur, also this month.

Sumariwalla, a former national sprints champion, has tried to justify the exclusion of Chithra and also of Asian champions Ajay Kumar Saroj (men’s 1500m) and Sudha Singh (women’s 3000m). Both Saroj and Sudha also won gold medals in far from conducive weather conditions in Bhubaneswar as it rained and made the track heavy on almost all four days, and thus qualified for the World Championship as “area champions”.

In his ‘Open Letter’, which the employers of an aggrieved athlete called “bull****”, Sumariwalla has tried to illustrate the reason for the axing of the three athletes.

While pointing out that the IAAF qualifying mark for 1500m was 4:26.48 seconds, Sumariwalla said that Chithra did not meet this mark either in Bhubaneswar (4:17.92 seconds – her career best) or in Guntur (came second in 4:28.87 seconds). To further buttress his point, he pointed out that Chithra’s personal best is less than the Indian junior national record (under-20) of 4:17.29 seconds.

“Her performance dropped significantly after AAC2017 at Inter-State event and timing was not better than even Indian junior national record timing -- not close enough to world qualifying mark at Inter-State which was last chance to achieve qualifying mark. She was also beaten to second position [in Guntur],” said Sumariwalla in the ‘Open Letter’, posted on the AFI website.

AFI said that Ajay Kumar Saroj, too, did not meet the IAAF’s qualifying mark (3:36.00 secs) nor did he even better the junior national record (under-20). Although he won gold medals in in unconducive weather conditions in Bhubaneswar (3:45.85 secs) and Guntur (3:45.88 secs), he could not better his personal best of 3:43.27 seconds.

It must also be pointed out here that athletes need sufficient period between two top notch competitions to recover and give their best. But between Bhubaneswar and Guntur there was only a gap of just five days, which several athletes and coaches contend was insufficient.

As far as Sudha Singh is concerned, she clocked 9:59.47 secs to win gold while the qualifying mark was 9:42.00 sec. She did not compete in Guntur.

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) qualification principles say that for the field events (races), the IAAF “member federation of the area champion will have the ultimate authority to enter the athlete or not, based on its own selection criteria”.

The deadline for sending athletes’ entries to the IAAF was the midnight of July 24. “But then IAAF has the discretion to add athletes, and that’s why it has invited Dutee Chand [women’s 100m], who was not in the original list [Indian squad], for the World Championships by virtue of her world ranking, 44^th,” Chithra’s lawyer Rajith Nayar told Outlook on Saturday. ‘

Nayar pointed out that the Union of India and the AFI are bound by the High Court’s orders while IAAF may not fall under its jurisdiction. Apart from the Union of India and AFI, the other respondents in Chithra’s petition are selection committee chairman GS Randhawa, the Sports Authority of India and Kerala State Athletic Association.

“At best, we can hope that the Union of India and the AFI take up Chithra’s matter with the IAAF, and the final call will be taken only by the IAAF, whether to allow Chithra to run or not,” Nayar said.

About the speculation that the AFI might move the Supreme Court, Nayar said that it was unlikely that the apex court would admit its petition, if the national body decides to move it at all. “They cannot go to the Supreme Court because they have got a division bench here [Kerala High Court, Ernakulam]. Also, AFI hasn’t filed a counter here. If they go to the Supreme Court, it would say ‘you first go to the High Court with the prayer for vacating it’. Most probably the Supreme Court may not allow,” Nayar felt.

Meanwhile, Sports Minister Vijay Goel spoke to Sumariwalla and advised him not to contest the directive of the Kerala High Court and ensure Chithra's participation in the World Championships, a ministry statement said on Saturday.

In her petition, Chithra has described her exclusion by the selection committee as “arbitrary”, “not fair” and was based “extraneous considerations”, and alleged that some of the athletes who were selected did not even compete in Guntur Inter-State Championships.

The court concurred with Chithra and wrote in the order: “The materials on record thus disclose that the petitioner has been sidelined and discriminated. Opportunities of the instant nature would come in the way athletes once in a lifetime and if they miss the chance they may not get it again.”

The selection committee picked a 24-member team, including 14 men and 10 women, which will compete in 14 different disciplines at the World Championships. The men will compete in eight disciplines and the women in six.

“At any rate, it cannot be said that the procedure adopted by for selection was fair. In addition, it is also seen that the statements made by the [AFI] president of the second respondent in the ‘open letter’ were statements made without any bona fides,” wrote the judge in the order passed Friday.

Besides the athletes, a 13-member support staff comprising team officials, coaches, masseurs and team doctor will also accompany the team which will depart for London in the first week of August.