Asmika’s Gold hopes end in tears: Whose Fault is it?
Sri Lanka’s main Gold contender Asmika Herath was deprived from taking part in her pet event, the 2000m Steeplechase, at the Asian Youth Athletics Championship which concluded tuesday (23rd) in Bangkok, Thailand, as the SL team management’s final appeal to include her in the race fell on deaf ears.
As Ceylon Athletics revealed yesterday, organizers had notified the SL Team Manager about event rules on Monday, which stated that an athlete cannot compete in two track events which are over 200m.
Asmika clocked 6 minutes 59.96 seconds in 2000m steeplechase back in SL at trials which is even better than the meet record time of 7 minutes 01.06 seconds. The Gold medal was won by Kim Suk of North Korea with a time of 7.02.77 seconds, almost 3 seconds behind the time Asmika clocked at the worn-out track of Diyagama in a lone run last month.
AASL entry fumble
The first mistake was made by the Athletics Association (AASL) who had clearly not noticed the specific rule about the number of events that an athlete could take part in, and they had entered Asmika for both the 3000m and 2000m Steeplechase events. The mistake has now cost a possible Gold medal which would have been a once in a lifetime opportunity for Asmika, which could have put her in the spotlight to fame, recognition, and more importantly, financial support from the government.
Technical meeting
The technical meeting prior to the competition, at which team managers participate, is where every technical matter is discussed, and it’s hard to believe that this issue hadn’t been raised during the meeting. As Ceylon Athletics learns, withdrawal forms had been distributed during the meeting allowing teams to withdraw their athletes from any event if required, and Asmika’s coach had stated he needed her to run half of the 3000m race as a warm up for the 2000m steeplechase two days later, which is a strange decision from a coach, showing clearly he wasn’t aware of the event rule even by then, as the SL team only got to know the ruling a day before the 2000m steeplechase (Monday).
Double standards by organizers
Even though the organizers were tough on their rule, there had been instances at the same meet where athletes from other countries had participated in two distance events, and once confronted about the double standards, they had accepted the mistake, and without allowing Asmika to participate in her event had stated they will look into those athletes (who had participated in two events) and disqualify them if they had won any medals.
The ruling had also affected 17 athletes representing various countries as none of them had seen the rule earlier, which reflects upon the poor communication from organizers about specific rules such as this one, which should have been highlighted in the championship rule manual.
No official confirmation of events prior to championship
The closing date for entries for the championship was 30 April, and organizers had 20 days to consider entries and send confirmations or notify nations about participations or rejections, allowing them to prepare their teams accordingly; which hadn’t happened here, as AASL had not been notified regarding confirmation of entries or anything else by the organizers. Also, a senior AASL official stated there have been many instances regarding entry mishandling at events at Asian level championships where organizers have been flexible to allow athletes to compete rather than blocking them from competing. Even Sri Lanka had allowed late entries and various changes by countries when hosting the Asian Junior Championship back in 2012.
Nevertheless, after all Sri Lanka lost a possible Gold medal from Asmika which could have been avoided with a little bit of extra care towards the championship rules by officials, as the young girl will be leaving Thailand dejected after coming from the island with golden dreams a week ago.
This is not the first official blunder which has affected a SL team in recent times, as managerial blunders deprived two wrestlers from competing in the Asian Championship, while another managerial blunder resulted in the SL badminton team missing a flight.
