A day after being included in the Commonwealth Games 2022 squad by Athletics Federation of India, high jumper Tejaswin Shankar will not be able to make it to Birmingham as the event’s working committee didn’t accept Indian Olympic Association’s request to add the athlete to the squad
File image of Tejaswin Shankar. Image Courtesy: Facebook profile of Tejaswin Shankar
A day after being included in the Commonwealth Games 2022 squad by the Athletics Federation of India, high jumper Tejaswin Shankar will not be able to make it to Birmingham as the event’s working committee didn’t accept Indian Olympic Association’s (IOA) request to add the athlete to the squad, reported Sportstar.
Earlier, following a court battle, Tejaswin was added to the CWG squad on Wednesday in place of 400m runner Rajiv Arokia, who couldn’t impress during trials in Patiala three days ago.
As reported by Firstpost, Tejaswin’s inclusion to the CWG squad was still subject to Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF, CWG organising body) approval as the last date of sending entries for the tournament was 29 July.
IOA secretary general Rajeev Mehta told Sportstar that Tejaswin couldn’t be added to the squad as the rules said only like-for-like replacements could be added to the squad. Earlier, AFI’s squad announcement for the CWG included no high jumpers, making Tejaswin ineligible for the event.
“We had sent Tejaswin’s name yesterday, but we received a response yesterday (Wednesday) night from the Commonwealth Games organisers that his name was not accepted,” Mehta said. “According to the rules, only a like-for-like replacement is permissible. So if we have withdrawn an athlete in one particular event, the replacement has to be in the same event.”
It is also worth mentioning that during the second hearing of the case on 24 June, the issue of the deadline for sending entries was brought to the Court’s knowledge. However, the court paid no heed to it while scheduling the next hearing on 4 July.
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