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Athletes fail to turn up for 1st Indian GP

The organisers had billed the Indian Grand Prix series as the last chance for athletes to seal their places in the Commonwealth Games squad.

Updated on: Jun 1, 2010, 24:24:26 IST
Hindustan Times | By , Mumbai
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The organisers had billed the Indian Grand Prix series as the last chance for athletes to seal their places in the Commonwealth Games squad.

HT Image
HT Image

But going by what happened in the First Indian GP at the Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex, Balewadi, Pune, on Monday, the athletes are

not interested in Grand Prix meets.

The meet was an opportunity for the athletes to test themselves before the 1st Asian Grand Prix meet to be held at the same venue on Tuesday.

But it seems neither the athletes nor the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) took things seriously and a large number of participants failed to turn up.

It was a mockery of an athletics meet as each event had only four to five participants.

In 200m races, for instance, for which the organisers had listed 13 women and 16 men participants in the start list. However, only four out of the 16 runners lined up for the men's race and six for women's!

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