Track and field officials at the 33rd National Games faced major embarrassment on Thursday when the original result in the men's 20km walk was reversed, with Services' Somendro Singh being disqualified and Assam's Oinam Sushil Kumar Singh declared the gold medallist.
Somendro finished first in the 50-lap event at the Indira Gandhi stadium on Wednesday ahead of the Assam athlete, but the host state protested that the Services walker had completed only 49 laps.
The technical committee under the chairmanship of Athletics Federation of India general secretary Lalit Bhanot went through the video footage provided by Doordarshan before declaring Sushil Kumar Singh as the winner.
The reversal is a major embarrassment for the officials as the official report on the event did not mention any discrepancy.
"We can only go by the reports from our technical officials who did not see anything wrong," an official had said on Wednesday.
The technical committee decided to disqualify Somendro and award the silver medal to P S Jalen of Services while Assam's Gurmeet Singh got the bronze medal.
The official result of the event mentions Somendro as DNF (Did Not Finish).
"The committee watched video evidence and agreed with the contention of the Assam delegation that the officials had indeed made a mistake, an AFI office-bearer said.
The officials conducting the event cannot be absolved of their responsibility, he added.
"The person who rang the bell signaling the final lap should also be taken to task," the office-bearer said.
After the appeal by Assam's Chef de Mission Bhogeshwar Baruah, the Games' officials withheld the official declaration of the event's result.
