2 Athletes Lost Their Berths In Rio Olympics 2016 Because Of A Stupid Power Failure. Sad!

As a sportsperson, it is not every day that you get to compete for the Rio Olympics, 2016. And it’s not every day that you lose that chance because of a power failure.

But this is the sad story of Srabani Nanda and Amiya Malik from Odisha who could have almost made it to Rio had it not been due to the carelessness of Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Delhi.

The Indian Grand Prix for the selection was held there and a power failure ruined everything.

 

The event started with a power failure and even though generators had been installed, the manpower needed to operate them wasn’t present as it was Sunday – a day off for them.

And because the Sports Authority of India (SAI) and the Delhi State Athletics Association (DSAA) weren’t on the same page, it caused the venue to have no backup power.

 

Srabani Nanda created a national record and also clocked the Olympic qualifier time by making it in 11.23 while fellow athlete Amiya Malik finished the 100-meter race in 10.09 seconds also breaking the qualification timing.

A Delhi Athletics Association official said, “We paid Sports Authority of India Rs 1.15 lakh to book the JLN Stadium and outside practice track area for the Indian GP and for Federation Cup (to be held from April 28-30). We also paid Rs 15,000 for security purposes. But to our surprise we found 15 minutes before the start of the meet that there is no electricity at the stadium.”

 

Due to no electricity, the records had to be written manually, and here’s the sad part – manual timings are not considered valid for Olympic qualifications.

All the hard work and training of the athletes went down the drain.

According to the hand-timings, 4 national records were broken with two crossing the Olympic qualifying mark, and all this will be of no use, only because of one small mistake.

And what are the authorities doing? Playing their own game – the blame game.

News Sources: India Today, News18
Cover Image Sources 1 & 2