Disqualified squad to board the flight for Sydney

The Amateur Athletic Federation of India (AAFI) — while clearing all those who had met the qualifying standards — had refused permission to the relay team on the plea that the federation was looking for the squad to achieve something close to 39 seconds. The quartet was given a chance at the Salwan International Meet a few days ago where the team, in their eagerness to make it to Sydney, `cheated’ by changing lanes and was disqualified.

The coach argued the team deserved to go. He said that two of the runners strayed into the lanes other than the one allotted but it would not have made much of a material difference. The team had, indeed, improved upon its fourth-place ATF timing of 39.70s to clock 39.28s. The Olympic and world records for the event stand at 37.40s set by the US in Barcelona.

The coach said that if the relay team, which could clock close to 39 seconds without the services of national record-holder Anil Kumar, it could do better with the sprinter, who has now fully recovered and training hard.

When contacted, AAFI secretary Lalit Kumar Bhanot was non-commital. However, he said that the four — C.Tirugnanadurai, Rajeev Balakrishanan, Anand Menezes and Ajay Raj Singh — had admitted to their folly and asked to be pardoned.