Sunita runs for cover, all alone

Beyond the media circus that Sunita Rani’s public appearance — a date with the inquiry committee — quickly disintegrated into...

Beyond the media circus that Sunita Rani’s public appearance — a date with the inquiry committee — quickly disintegrated into today was the fact that, one week after the finger was first pointed at her, she still stands totally alone. The officials who would have fed off her medals were safely ensconsced in their air-conditioned cabins while the athlete ran the gauntlet.

It was a sight reminiscent of the height of match-fixing, or a scene out of a Bollywood film; a couple of hundred reporters and photographers gathered at the Nehru Stadium. Though the throng had been gathered for an hour or so, there was no security. So when Sunita arrived at 4-20 p.m. in a white Contessa, pandemonium broke out.

The crowd surged forward and stopped the car. Its occupants, unnerved, had it reversed at high speed and went to the stadium’s rear entrance. The media followed, showing remarkable alacrity. Car stopped, Sunita got out and, sizing up the 50-metre distance between self and salvation — the office of the Amateur Athletic Federation of India — began running, leaving her slippers behind.

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Leaving her brother and cousin behind, Sunita entered the inquiry room to meet the AAFI’s legal cell chief Sushil Salwan. The one time she emerged, to visit the toilet, she was followed right up to the door by photographers.

Then the press conference. Now security got into the act, the guards taking up positions outside the room where she was to read out her one-line statement.

Still no sign of the officials, although some 100 metres away, at the IOA office, India’s chef de mission to Busan Jagdish Tytler was sitting in the chamber of IOA secretary-general Randhir Singh. AAFI secretary Lalit Bhanot was waiting in his room on the first floor.

The only sign of support came from discus thrower Anil Kumar, who said he was there as a fellow athlete.

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Finally, the press meet. A visibly shaken Sunita said her piece, flanked by her family, repeated it for a TV channel that hadn’t got it the first time and was then whisked away.

Leaving behind the officials in their rooms.

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