The first day of competition at the Asian Para Games was marred in controversy for India as the trio of Dharambir, Pranav Soorma, and Anantram was barred from competing.
In the F53 men’s discus throw final after they allegedly turned up late in the call room. The competition rules stipulate all athletes be present in the call room — essentially a tent in the stadium premises where para-athletes are supposed to wait before the competition begins — 50 minutes before the event.
Controversy aside, India bagged 17 medals on Monday (6 gold, 6 silver, 5 bronze) to take the fourth spot on the points table behind China, Iran, and Uzbekistan.
The Indian side claimed the athletes had reached well in time but were called outside to get their throwing stands (wheelchairs) checked. By the time they were wheeled back ten minutes later, they were deemed late and were denied entry.
“It was preposterous. The officials called us outside and checked our throwing stands. I don’t understand why this check was done at the last moment. Anyway, we entered the call room at 3.44pm local time and were told that the cut-off time was 3.43pm. We tried to reason it out with the officials but to no avail,” said Soorma who had won a gold medal in the F51 club throw event earlier in the day.
India lodged an official protest which was rejected. “The technical director was quite adamant. At least 14-15 Indians tried to explain the scenario but it all fell on deaf ears. The Indian trio had a good chance to sweep the podium,” Gursharan Singh, PCI secretary and India’s chef de mission, said.
The protest, a copy of which sought to invoke Rule 35 of the WPA Rules and Regulations 2023 and requested all three athletes be allowed to compete.
“Whatever happened was done intentionally by the Chinese officials. It was not fair. They wanted to demoralise us,” fumed Satyanarayana, India’s athletics coach.
Earlier, ahead of the club throw competition, the clubs of the Indian athletes — Soorma, Dharambir, and Amit Siroha — were deemed ineligible for size violation.
“The neck of the club is supposed to be 18-20mm, the widest part should be 50-60mm, the metallic part is 39X13 mm and the weight of the club should be between 397-422gms. All our clubs were checked as per World Paralympics guidelines before we landed here but the officials said there were minor deviations here and there. The three of us were carrying about 15 clubs among us but apparently none of it was as per the standard. Eventually, we competed with the clubs that were provided by them,” Soorma, the gold medallist, said. Dharambir won the silver while Siroha took the bronze.
“As athletes, we are prepared to bounce back from every situation but this was unlike we had faced before. We saw it happen with Jyothi Yarraji and Neeraj Chopra during the Asian Games, so it was not all that surprising,” Soorma remarked.
Among other athletes to shine, shooter Avani Lekhara took gold with a Games record score of 249.6 while Ankur Dhama won gold in the T11 5000m (16.37 minutes). In the men’s T63 high jump, Shailesh Kumar took the gold with a Games record jump of 1.82m Mariyappan Thangavelu won silver with 1.80m.