Junior cyclist disqualified

PATIALA, January 20: With most of the seniors being involved in preliminary qualifying rounds, the sub-juniors finally had a tryst with big league attention on the third day of the 51st Avon Senior, Junior and Sub-Junior National Cycling Championship here at the Punjabi University Velodrome today.

The only problem was the quot;greedquot; 8212; at their parents8217; and coaches8217; behest. Competing in lower age groups, some participants marred the spirit of the games. A direct result of this ploy saw Narinderjit Singh Punjab, who came second in the 500 metres time trial for sub-junior boys under-14, being disqualified from the championship as he was found to be quot;overagedquot; by the team of doctors at the National Institute of Sports, here, after the bone and x-ray tests.

Narinderjit8217;s case was not an isolated one as the organisers had to revert at least 10-12 more participants to the higher age groups. This came after the organisers had already given a leverage of one year to all the participants, in lieu of the championships being held in 8217;98 rather than the originally scheduled 8217;97.