E-Paper
Judges invite wrath of contestant
TWO JUDGES today faced the ire of a national-level gymnast for giving more points to their sons, allegedly at his expense, in the gymnastic event of the State Olympic Games under way here. The judges - - Ramesh Patel and Manohar Sharma ? were hugely embarrassed.
TWO JUDGES today faced the ire of a national-level gymnast for giving more points to their sons, allegedly at his expense, in the gymnastic event of the State Olympic Games under way here. The judges - - Ramesh Patel and Manohar Sharma — were hugely embarrassed.
They couldnn’t satisfy an agitated Rakesh Khichi. The player kept alleging bias in marking. “How could you expect fair judging when the judges’ sons are participants?”, asked Rakesh.
He asserted that being a gymnast of the Railways team, he knows about point count. “These judges are unfair. They are giving more points to their sons”, alleged Khichi.
Manohar Sharma, however, denied any bias. “If you give fewer points to any player he would naturally react. The same happened with Rakesh”, he said in defence.
But he had no satisfactory reply to the question as to why a person should agree to become a judge when his son is also participating in the same event.
“There is nothing new in it.
It happens number of times. I don’t see any thing wrong in it,” he said. The other judge, Ramesh Patel, offered the similar defence. “Blaming anyone is easy but we know there is no bias”, said Patel. His son Shashwat Patel is an international gymnast participating in the event.
Sports Authority of India (SAI) coach Ramesh Patel, gives training at Tatya Tope Stadium. Incidentally, the coaching centre has produced only one international gymnast, Shashwat Patel, in the last 20 years. Shashwat happens to be his son. Shashwat was conferred Vikram Award this year.
