CWG organising committee rejects high-jumper Tejaswin Shankar's inclusion

Commonwealth Games (CWG). Indian Olympic Association’s (IOA) acting president Anil Khanna told TOI on Thursday that the Birmingham Organising Committee (OC) has rejected IOA’s request to allow Tejaswin as replacement for quartermiler Arokia Rajiv, who had withdrawn from the national interstate athletics championships held last month in Chennai due to illness. The request to the organisers was made on behalf of the Athletics Federation of India (AFI), which had asked IOA “to increase the quota for athletics so that others who have met the qualifying standards can also compete in CWG”.

“Today, we received a letter from the Birmingham OC that Tejaswin’s name can’t be accepted as replacement. They say the request for replacement can only be accepted for an athlete competing in the same event. The rules call for like-forlike replacements.

So, a 4x400m relay athlete (read Rajiv) can’t be substituted by a high-jumper (Tejaswin). The honourable Court (Delhi HC) will be told by the IOA that we requested the OC but it refused,” Khanna said. It’s worth mentioning that when the AFI had announced the 37-member squad for the CWG, it had named no high-jumpers which made Tejaswin ineligible for the multi-disciplinary event.

Khanna said AFI’s request to increase the quota for athletics to include five additional names has also been rejected. “The OC didn’t approve of the request. The quotas can’t be exceeded because they are fixed for every participating nation and, for India, it was 215 (athletes).” 215 athletes in contingentA total of 215 athletes will be representing India at the CWG, which will include 108 male athletes and 107 female sportspersons, the IOA announced on Thursday.