Students left breathless as trial timings clash
Many aspiring to make it to Delhi University under sports quota were left panting on Wednesday.
Many aspiring to make it to Delhi University under sports quota were left panting on Wednesday. The timings of fitness tests and trials of many top colleges clashed with each other,forcing them to rush from one campus to the next.
Fitness tests and trials were held at Miranda House,Jesus and Mary College,Shri Ram College of Commerce and Hansraj College on Wednesday,forcing students to choose between colleges or attend two or more fitness tests in the span of a few hours.
Shriya Sinha,a national-level basketball player from Faridabad,secured 83 per cent in her Class XII exams and wanted to pursue BCom (H) or BA (H) Economics in one of the North Campus colleges. She said,“I went for the fitness test at SRCC at 7 am and reached Miranda House by 9.30 am.”
While Shriya managed to make it to both SRCC and Miranda House on Wednesday,her twin,Riya,played it safe — choosing to come to Miranda House alone. She said,“I have 78 per cent in Class XII and I played basketball at the state-level. I didn’t go to SRCC and I am not going to Stephen’s tomorrow.”
Thursday — June 21 — also has a packed schedule as St Stephen’s,Gargi and Indraprastha College are set to conduct trials simultaneously.
Teachers said centralisation of fitness trials could have made things a lot easier for students.
Dr Amita Rana,head of department of Physical Education at Miranda House,said: “There were students who could not turn up for fitness tests on time at our college as SRCC was conducting tests around the same time. So,we allowed these students to appear for the tests later.”
“Students are running from one test to the next with little time to eat,” said Sunita Atwal,senior Badminton coach from the Sports Authority of India who was judging aspirants as an external expert at Hansraj College.
Some ambiguities in the sports guidelines also led to confusion. According to the new guidelines,all aspirants have to pass two of the three fitness tests — a 1,000-metre run,1.15 to 1.65 broad jump and 50 metres dash with different time limits for men and women.
Teachers say that these fitness tests are meaningless for certain games,such as chess,shooting etc. “The fitness tests are ideal for sports like badminton and football. But for chess,shooting,archery,etc.,they are unnecessary. A sport like shooting,for example,requires rest before a competition,” said Dr M P Sharma of Hansraj College’s Physical Education department.
The guidelines were also silent in cases where disabled candidates were participating in trials for games like chess,said Dr Sharma.
Colleges were free to make exceptions where required in fitness tests,said Dr C S Dubey,Chairman of the Delhi University Sports Council. “For indoor games and students with disabilities,colleges are free to make exceptions and university has not made fitness tests compulsory for these sports. We have asked colleges that in cases where there were clashes in trial timings,no student should be denied the chance to appear for trials,” he said.
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