A livid Sports Authority of India on Monday decided to take Athletics Federation of India to task for the embarrassment it caused to the country after 18 overaged athletes were barred from the Nanjing Asian Youth Games, China, and said it would recover the money spent by it on the athletes’ airfare.
Squarely blaming AFI for the shocking incident, SAI director general Jiji Thomson said the government had spent around Rs 10 lakh for the airfare of the disqualified athletes who are returning home from China.
Only U-17 athletes, those born in January 1997 or later, were eligible to take part in Asian Youth Games but AFI included 18 athletes in the track and field team of 27 who were born in 1996. ‘It’s a huge embarrassment. We are terribly annoyed. We will definitely seek an explanation from AFI and will also recover the amount spent on their airfare which is almost Rs 10 lakhs. We are going to the recover this money from AFI,’ Thomson said.
Squarely blaming AFI for the shocking incident, SAI director general Jiji Thomson said the government had spent around Rs 10 lakh for the airfare of the disqualified athletes who are returning home from China.
Only U-17 athletes, those born in January 1997 or later, were eligible to take part in Asian Youth Games but AFI included 18 athletes in the track and field team of 27 who were born in 1996. ‘It’s a huge embarrassment. We are terribly annoyed. We will definitely seek an explanation from AFI and will also recover the amount spent on their airfare which is almost Rs 10 lakhs. We are going to the recover this money from AFI,’ Thomson said.