As the young rowers sliced though the Punnamada Lake here in their quest for medals and glory, Tamil Nadu's Fazila Husain was in tears. The young girl, who questioned the Rowing Federation of India (RFI)'s selection policies in recent letters, was barred from competing in the 32nd Junior National Championship, here on Friday.
The RFI's order, which suspended her for six months, reached Fazila just before the start of her single sculls event on Friday morning.
“She has taken a collision course, now she has to face the consequences,” C.P. Singh Deo, President, RFI, told The Hindu on Friday.
The 17-year-old Fazila, from Chennai, had finished fourth in the Junior National last year in Hyderabad.
With the top three finishers crossing the age-limit this year, Fazila thought her chances of getting into the Indian team for the last month's Asian Junior Championship in South Korea were bright.
She was shocked when she found out that her name was not in the list and thus began a series of letters from Fazila — with her dad Farid A. Hussain the brain behind all of them — to the RFI asking why she was not included in the team and asking for clarifications.
“We don't follow the queue system,” explained Mr. Singh Deo.
“Every four years, we prepare a long-term development programme, which goes from one Asian Games to the other. But this year, we got a call from the Government that the Commonwealth Games procedure would be applied for preparation for next year's London Olympics…we call it the Op-Ex, Operation Excellence.”
