Tejaswin Shankar the High Jump NR holder who Qualified for the CWG was omitted from initial squad.
A trial which took place for the World Championships Oregon Relay race replacement runner opened the door for Tejaswin. Arokia Rajiv who ran the 400m couple of days back to prove his fitness for boarding the plane to Oregon in place of Amoj Jacob has now lost his CWG berth as well to a High Jumper.
Tejaswin who had met the AFI set criteria of 2.27m at the NCAA championship was not selected initially in the squad because he didn’t take permission to opt out of the National Interstate championships.
Following the team announcement Tejaswin filed a written petition in Delhi HC seeking reason for exclusion from the team despite meeting the qualifying criteria.
Justice Yashwant Varma, hearing the record-holding long jumper’s petition, came down heavily on the Athletics Federation of India regarding its team selection for the Commonwealth Games.
AFI made a statement that Arokia Rajiv has been disqualified and Tejaswin Shankar has been included in the 36 team contingent. Court has directed AFI to sent the same fortwith to IOA and IOA has been directed to immediately reach out to CWG authority and intimate about Tejaswin’s inclusion –
- Malak Dutta, the lawyer who represents Shankar
Important to note that AFI also said they have sent the name to CWG committee but since the last date of submission was 29th it’s up to them.
