Bar trouble mars day 1 at circuit meet

Bangalore, July 6: Although four National marks and one Asian mark was bettered, the second Domestic Circuit Athletics meet got off to a disastrous start on Wednesday with the officials at the high jump pit committing a blunder. The event itself was conducted only to test the claims of Bobby Alloysius and she was the lone jumper in the fray.

“The officials made the wrong announcement about the height of the bar,” said AAFI Technical Committee chairman Kripal Singh, who inspected the height. “The bar fell off during Bobby’s first attempt, in the process bringing down the height and the officials did not check when they replaced the cross-bar for the second attempt. It is certainly a matter of carelessness.” Well, the carelessness this time was a little too much.

Shattered by the change, Bobby attempted to clear 1.90 metres and failed. Going by the mood she was in, it would have been a surprise, including for herself, if she had cleared it.

At the end of the day, AAFI vice-president AK Banerjee announced a cash award of Rs 4,000 saying “even 1.85 metre is a good performance,” but the real reason was too obvious.