The Kerala High Court on Friday directed the Centre government and the Athletic Federation of India (AFI) to take steps forthwith to ensure participation of athlete P.U. Chithra in the 1,500-m race in the International Association of Athletic Federation World Championship to be held in London from August 4 to 13.
The court issued the interim directive on a writ petition filed by the athlete challenging the decision of the AFI to exclude her from the list of sportspersons chosen for the world event. According to her, she had automatically qualified for participation in the championship as per the standard prescribed by IAAF. Besides, she had won the gold medal in the women’s 1,500 m event at the recent Asian championship in Bhubaneswar.
When the petition came up for hearing, the counsel for the AFI pointed out that even though she had qualified for the world championship, she was not considered as her timing in the competition in Guntur meet was below the timing set by her in the Asian Athletic Championship held in July 2017 in Bhubaneswar. Besides, the AFI had instructed all the athletes that they must participate in the Guntur championship and those who did not perform up to the IAAF qualifying standards in Guntur would not be considered for selection to the world championship.
The court observed that if the participation in the championship at Guntur was mandatory for the selection for IAAF World Championship, persons who had not participated in the Guntur Championship should not have been selected.
It was admitted in an open letter by the AFI that two candidates, Swapana Barman and G. Lakshaman who did not participate in the championship had been included in the India team for Heptathlon and 10,000 m race respectively. It was therefore evident that the participation in the Guntur championship was not a criteria for participation in the world championship. Therefore,the procedure adopted by the AFI was not fair.
As for the contention regarding the timing, the court said that many sportpersons who were nowhere close to the standard fixed for IAAF world Championship had also been included in the Indian team.
The court observed that the material on record disclosed that Ms. Chithra had been “sidelined and discriminated”. Opportunities of this nature “would come in the way of an athlete only once in a lifetime and if they miss the chance, they may not get it again”.
