Mumbai: India’s sports minister Vijay Goel has orderd probe into OP Jaisha row. He has constituted a two-member committee on Tuesday to probe the allegations that no Indian athletics officials were there to support Jaisha during the event at Rio Olympics 2016.
Jaisha collapsed at the end of her marathon run because of dehydration and the athlete told NDTV on Monday that there were no Indian officials present to provide her water and energy drinks at refreshment points en route the 42.195 km race.
Senior officials of Athletics federation of India have dismissed Jaisha’s allegations and AFI secretary CK Valson said that she is giving excuses and passing the buck for her failure and underperformance at the Rio Games.
“She underperformed in the marathon, maybe that’s why she has thrown this blame,” Valson has said. The 33-year-old OP Jaisha finished 89th among 168 runners.
Onkar Kedia, joint secretary (sports) and Vivek Narayan (sports) are part of the two-member committee to investigate the case. They will present their report in seven days.
The incident clearly shows the apathy that athletes get from the officials and there is complete miscommunication and officials and athletes are not on the same page. Jaisha’s allegations need to be proved and if she is right than heads must roll.
AFI and OP Jaisha are locked in a war of words and playing the blame game over the issue.
“Why should I lie? There was no water in Rio,” Jaisha told NDTV, rejecting an AFI statement that Indian runners had refused the offer to have refreshments served at the counters that Indian officials could have manned.
“Both Kavita Raut and I know there was no water… After 21 km, I was really exhausted, couldn’t even walk for a metre,” Jaisha said.
Kavita Raut had a different take on the issue and contradicted Jaisha’s claim.
“Athletics federation told us in the evening during assembly that if we have any personal drink we should put it in the bottle provided to us and hand it over to them. I am telling you about myself and I refused to take anything. I have no such complaint,” Kavita said.
India had a disappointing Rio Olympics. Only Sakshi Malik, wrestler (bronze) and Pusarla Venkata Sindhu, badminton (silver) made India proud. India finished 67th at the medal rankings, with USA, Great Britain and China occupying the first three positions with 121, 67, and 70 medals respectively.
Sports Authority of India (SAI) and India sports ministry should have a complete and thorough review to look into the matter and how to improve India’s performance at the 2020, Tokyo Olympics.