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What's the story?
The Commonwealth Games 2018 are close to commencing, but the controversies involving the Athletic Federation of India (AFI) do not seem to end. Finding themselves immersed in yet another questionable controversy, the AFI are at the receiving end of yet another backlash after the athletics events list was released.
Sprinter Hima Das's name did not figure in the list of entries for the 200m race, despite being named in the contingent in the 200m bracket.
In case you didn't know...
The Commonwealth Games 2018 or the Gold Coast 2018 is scheduled to take place between 4th-15th of April. The multi-sport event will be held at the Gold Coast at Queensland, Australia.
The heart of the matter
Right after the list of events was released on the official site of CWG, tweets kept pouring in wondering whether there was a last minute change or inefficiency on the part of the AFI.
Although Hima Das had not breached the 22.60s qualification mark in 200m for the Commonwealth Games, she was named in the Indian contingent in that bracket as well as in 400m and 4x400m relay. However, her name does not appear on the entry list of 200m, which has sparked controversy.
The strange exclusion of the promising sprinter brings back memories of another probably goof up on the part of the AFI. High jumpers Siddharth Yadav and Shreeshankar also found themselves eliminated from the entry list, the reason being that their accreditations were not done on time.
The AFI, though, later clarified that the coach has the final say as to which events an athlete will take part in, taking into consideration the performances of the others, the schedule among other things.
What's next?
Constantly coming under the radar for recurrent slip-ups, it is yet to be seen how the AFI cope with the problems in the run-up to the CWG.
Author's take
India has abundant talent in the form of its athletes and the CWG would have been an exceptional platform for the Indians to grab the spotlight. It is therefore disheartening to see such inconsistencies on the part of the higher authorities.
However, given that Hima's timing of 23.37s in 200m at the Federation Cup in February was not even close to the 8th place time of 2014 Glasgow Games (23.24s), it might not prove too costly for India's medal chances in Gold Coast.
