Indian GP: Odisha athletes missing Rio berth prompts government action

'The Centre should take the matter seriously and ensure creating an opportunity to Srabani Nanda and Amiya Mallick to participate in the Rio Olympics'

The Odisha government has resented the apparent denial of opportunity for two sprinters from the state -- Srabani Nanda and Amiya Mallick -- for the upcoming Rio Olympics due to manual time recording at the qualifying events, which is not accepted by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).

- Indian athletes lose out after GP meet ends in farce with power failure

Odisha's Sports and Youth Affairs Minister Sudam Marndi, on Tuesday, raised the issue with the Centre.

"The Centre should take the matter seriously and ensure creating an opportunity to Srabani Nanda and Amiya Mallick to participate in the Rio Olympics," Marndi wrote to Union Sports minister Sarbananda Sonowal.

The state government's action came after two BJD MPs, Dilip Tirkey and Bhupinder Singh, raised the issue of 'denial' of opportunity to Srabani Nanda and Amiya Mallick.

Nanda and Mallick won gold medals at the Indian Grand Prix, qualifying event for the Rio Games, on Sunday but their timings were recorded manually due to a power failure at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi.

Manual recording of timing is not considered by the IAAF.

While Mallick got the Rio qualification mark with a national record of 10.09 seconds in the men's 100 m, Nanda created a new national record with a timing of 11.23 seconds and also met the qualifying mark for Rio.

Meanwhile, Bhupinder Singh said he has also taken up the matter with Union Finance minister Arun Jaitley who has assured him to discuss with Athletics Federation of India (AFI) the fiasco at the Indian Grand Prix, which denied the athletes berths to Rio Olympics.

"Jaitley has said he will write to the AFI about the issue," Singh said.

Image: Srabani Nanda at training

Photograph: Facebook