Nandini was cleared by WA: Sumariwalla on speculation on her omission from world c'ships

New Delhi, Aug 31 (PTI) Athletics Federation of India (AFI) on Sunday made it clear that Asian champion heptathlete Nandini Agasara was omitted from the 19-member team for next month's World Championships in Tokyo despite qualifying for the showpiece due to lack of fitness and not any other issue.

Agasara, who had qualified for the September 13-21 showpiece, had earlier told PTI that she will not compete in Tokyo as she is yet to fully recover from the elbow injury she had sustained while winning gold in Asian Championships in May.

"First of all, let me make one thing very clear. There was a protest made by a fellow athlete at the Asian Games (in 2023 in Hangzhou). But Nandini was cleared by World Athletics," AFI spokesperson Adille Sumariwalla said at a virtual media interaction after the team was announced.

He was referring to Swapna Barman's allegations after finishing fourth, behind Agasara, who won a bronze in Hangzhou.

"Number two, the gene test has just been done for all athletes who have qualified (for World Championships). And the results will go directly to World Athletics and World Athletics pays for that. We do not have any such result," he added.

World Athletics recently directed all the members countries to conduct SRY (Sex-determining Region Y) gene test for all the athletes who are competing in the showpiece in Tokyo. The test is primarily used to identify the presence or absence of the SRY gene, which plays a crucial role in male sex determination during fetal development.

"Thirdly, this is a sensitive issue and cannot be discussed in public. There are privacy rules of World Athletics," the former AFI chief said when asked on speculation about Nandini's pulling out.

'Many are one race athletes': Sumariwalla on not taking extra load ======================================== "We are not at that level, except maybe 2 or 3 who could get a medal. The rest should use the championships to do their personal best, as an experience for next big championship," Sumariwalla said about medal prospects.

"But you can't go there and run 30% below your best. That's not acceptable. If you perform your best, we are happy. If that can get you a medal, so be it." Sumariwalla, currently a World Athletics Vice President, came down hard on some athletes for being "one race athletes" and for refusing to take extra load.

"The problem is we were completely under-trained on the load. Our athletes were taking load of 100-120km a week. The load has now been increased to 280km.

"They will have to go over 300km if they have to compete with the best in the world," he said, talking about some long and middle distance runners.

He also slammed the coaches of such athletes for "saving" them.

"With the Indian coaches, they were trying to save them and I don't know for what they were trying to save them. They (the athletes) were never able to perform. So that is the story of middle and long distance." Sumariwalla said the AFI has done some some structural changes to deal with the issue.

"(Some of) our athletes were all one race athletes. When the coach tried to make them two race or three race athletes, they didn't want to take the load.

"If you see Vishal TK (who recently broke the men's 400m race), every race he has improved. And how many races has he run? He has run 16 races. Our athletes, Indian coaches don't want to make their athletes run races." Sumariwalla, however, was not willing to say much when asked if there was issues between Indian and foreign coaches in the Indian athletics set-up. He said "those are internal matters which we are resolving".

Jamaican Jason Dawson, the head coach of the men’s 4x400m relay national team which includes Vishal, had earlier alleged interference from Indian coaches.

'Chopra will be fine in Tokyo' ================== Asked about Chopra's form as he finished second yet again in the Diamond League Finals on Thursday, Sumariwalla said, "He said he had a little timing issue. He was moving to one side also.

"He is a very technically sound athlete. He has slightly made adjustments from what I understand in his approach and throw. And once that timing is corrected, he is going to be absolutely fine back to throwing 90m." He rued Sable was capable of winning a 3000m steeplechase medal in the 2022 World Championships in Eugene, USA, but missed out as he "did not listen to his coach".

"Our national championships are faster than that race. Now, was there a disappointment? Absolutely.

"Because, Sable was capable of a medal there had he run his race, had he listened to his coach. Sometimes you don't listen to your coach. The coach had given him splits of each 1000m.

"The race went slow, so he also started running slow, thinking he can kick at the end. He doesn't have that speed to kick at the end. So, if you can't kick at the end, you lose." He said an internal discussion has been going on in the AFI whether to pick in future those athletes who qualified for major events like the world championships at the bottom of the pack. PTI PDS PDS BS BS