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U-20 national meet: Eight athletes found overage, undergo medical tests
Their results at the championships in Lucknow have been withheld awaiting results of bone verification tests, an athletics official said.
Eight athletes have reportedly been found over age on the penultimate day of the three-day 22nd National Junior U20 Federation Athletics Championships here on Saturday. Their results have been withheld and they have been made to appear for bone tests in a local hospital here.
Besides this, an athlete who won silver in an event was found to have participated under a different name allegedly using a fake Aadhar card. An expert committee of the Athletics Federation of India in association with the organisers Uttar Pradesh Athletics Association (UPAA) has been asked to go into such cases.
“Yes, so far eight athletes have been found over age as per their certificates and physical appearances. The bone tests of all of them have been done and results of the tests are still awaited,” UPAA’s chief executive officer, PK Srivastava, said on Saturday.
“Results of such athletes have been withheld and will be declared only after the bone test results. If any of them have qualified for next month’s Asian Championships at Dubai, they will be allowed to go only if they come out clean in the tests,” he said.
Srivastava said AFI has introduced age verification in the U20 championships this time. “The age verification committee found that all these eight athletes have manipulated their certificates and have different age, overage as per their Aadhar cards and other relevant documents. For the time being, they have been allowed to participate, but the results are subject to the outcome of the bone tests.”
AARTI SETS NATL MARK
Odisha's promising quarter-miler Bapi Hansda set a meet record while winning the men’s 400m, at the SAI centre here. Hansda clocked 46.90 seconds, eclipsing the previous record of 46.93 secs. The Asian qualifying mark in men’s 400m is 48.10sec.
Haryana’s Aarti won the women’s 10,000m race walk event clocking a national record 47:21.04. The previous meet record was 48:25.90 while the national record stood at 47:30.94. She achieved the Asian qualifying mark. The two are the most prominent among those who have achieved the qualifying standard for the continental meet.
