Gymnast Rakesh Patra lashes out over exclusion from Asian Games 2023

India gymnast Rakesh Patra has taken to X (formerly Twitter) to express his disappointment over his exclusion from the Asian Games team.

According to Patra, he met all the required qualifications but his name was mysteriously missing from the list of athletes who will head to Hangzhou later in September.

Over the years, Rakesh Patra has been one of India's best male artistic gymnasts to grace the field. Competing on the national team since 2010, Patra narrowly missed out from qualifying for the 2016 Olympics, and a shoulder injury kept him from performing in Tokyo.

He has since had a dramatic comeback, and he recently missed out on clinching bronze at the FIG World Challenge Cup in Hungary by a margin of 0.167 points.

Venting his frustration at his exclusion from the games, Patra wrote that he felt Indian elite gymnasts had been betrayed and deprived of the opportunity to represent India at the Asian Games.

He also attached photos of a letter that the Gymnastics Federation of India sent to the Sports Authority of India over the missing names of certain athletes.

Dipa Karmakar hits out at SAI on Asian Games snub

Rakesh Patra isn't the only gymnast to have turned to X recently as a way to express themselves. Olympian and artistic gymnastic World Cup gold medalist, Dipa Karmakar, had taken to the platform to express her confusion over her exclusion from the Asian Games.

In a multiple-part post, Dipa detailed that she felt the hard work and sacrifice that went into preparing for major competitions was rarely appreciated.

She continued that SAI's lack of clarity and consistency regarding the application of selection criteria left athletes confused and uncertain.

With the Gymnastics Federation of India backing both Rakesh Patra and Dipa Karmakar, it remains to be seen if either athlete is given permission to compete at the Hangzhou Games.