Bengaluru: Asian champion Man Singh will not be able to defend his title in the 20th Asian Marathon Championships to be held in Jiaxing, China, on March 30. The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) officials allegedly failed to submit the names of Indian athletes before the entry deadline. The alleged goof-up could cost the Army athlete a berth in the World Championships to be held in Tokyo later this year as he will lose out on valuable ranking points.
“It’s a big disappointment for Man Singh as he was training hard to climb the podium in China and also to advance in the world rankings in the Road To Tokyo list,” sources in athletics circles told TOI. “The athletes were earlier sounded out but two weeks ago they were told that none of the athletes are going,” they added.
Singh, who is currently ranked 102 in the list, would have taken a big leap if he had done well in China. He would have been in the region of 80-85 had he clocked around 2 hours, 15 minutes and emerged on the podium in Jiaxing as it’s rated as Category A event by World Athletics. A total of 100 athletes will compete at the men’s marathon in Tokyo.
According to sources, once AFI realised that they had missed the date, the newly elected office bearers tried hard to get an entry at least for Man Singh but nothing worked as the deadline had passed on Feb 28. They made repeated efforts through the channels in Sports Authority of India and the sports ministry, but the organisers expressed their helplessness.
Those who followed the script said AFI’s plan was to enter the top-2 finishers from the New Delhi Marathon, recognized by AFI as the National Marathon Championships held last month. That gruelling race saw Man Singh win the title in 2:15:24s, followed by Pardeep Singh Chaudhary (2:15:29) in second place. Bhagirathi Bisht (2:48:59) and Thakor Nirmaben Bharatjee (2:49:16) took the top two spots in the women’s section. AFI now plans to send Man Singh to next month’s Hamburg Marathon but it would now be an uphill task for Singh to make the cut for Tokyo.
AFI officials said the athletes were not entered for the Asian meet as they were not ready. “We were told that our athletes are not ready. That’s why we dropped out. It’s wrong to say that we missed the deadline,” an official told TOI. This will be the second no-show by Indian athletes in an international meet after none of the qualified athletes were entered for the recent World Indoor Athletics Championships.