3 taekwondo players miss Asian Games due to IOA negligence

Vinayak Padmadeo

New Delhi, September 24

Three taekwondo players — Shivansh Tyagi, Margrette Maria and Rupa Bayor — have missed the chance to participate in the Asian Games due to the mishandling of entries by the Indian Olympics Association (IOA).

Interestingly, IOA joint secretary Kalyan Chaubey claimed in the Delhi High Court that Tyagi was already in China, even though the three athletes are still in India. The HC was hearing a petition filed by Tyagi.

“…respondent has taken several steps to select and has sent three players to represent Republic of India for the sport of taekwondo at the upcoming 19th Asian Games,” Chaubey claimed in his affidavit submitted on September 20. “…petitioner was one of the athletes who was selected and in this regard has already reached China to represent India,” the affidavit further read.

IOA president PT Usha was surprised to find out that both Tyagi and Margrette were still in India after a chance meeting in the IOA office on Friday. Usha then took their case up with the Asian Games organisers, who replied that they will not allow late entries.

Now the athletes feel cheated as both Tyagi and Margrette had been doing the rounds of the IOA office for the last three days. Rupa did not travel from Arunachal Pradesh to Delhi as no one bothered to tell her that there was hope of travelling to China.

“They kept telling us that there is hope. All we heard was, ‘you will get positive news in the morning or by this evening’ but nothing happened,” Tyagi told The Tribune. “I am very sad today. We have been chasing the IOA for over three months to send our entries. I know there is a dispute between the Taekwondo Federation of India and India Taekwondo. For the sake of the sport, the authorities need to either sort this mess out or just shut down the sport in our country,” he added.