The fact that self-important federation officials in India have no respect for sportsmen is a well known fact. Nowhere was this more evident than on the first day of road races of the Asian Cycling Championships at the Budh International Circuit on Wednesday.
As the winners of the time trial in the Junior Men’s category went up on the stage to receive their medals, the assembled members of the media were left aback as none other than Manorama Devi — the brightest star in Indian cycling — and her national team colleagues Sunita Devi and Anjana were made to hold the trays with medals and flowers for the winners. The medal trays are usually carried by ceremonial staff. Manorama had won a silver medal in Keirin race at the track events which were held at the IG Velodrome before the action shifted to the BIC.
Although Indian coach Bhim Singh Dahiya refused to comment on the issue, Cycling Federation of India (CFI) secretary general Omkar Singh defended the federation. “It’s no way demeaning the girls. It’s an innovative way of felicitation. Giving a medal to an Asian champion is an honour,” he said.”It also conveys a mark of respect for a better cyclist. We used to do it in our college events.”
However, considering the fact that there have been instances where athletes have been forced to serve tea and refreshments to officials and their visitors at Sports Authority of India centres, Wednesday’s incident is hardly surprising.
Just when those present thought that they had seen enough, the CFI officials came up with more examples of blatant mismanagemen which deprived the gold medal-winning cyclists of a proud moment of listening to their national anthems along with the raising of their country’ flag as both systems were not in place at the Formula One circuit.
As Dmitry Rive of Kazakhstan the winner of the junior men’s time trial received his gold medal, the organisers tried an innovative way of playing the anthem on a laptop and transmitting it to the speakers through a walkie talkie. But the makeshift arrangement obviously did not work.
Mongolia’s Enkhjargal Tuvshinjargal, who won Elite Women’s Individual Time Trial and Ya Pang of Hong Kong, winner of Junior Women’s Individual Time Trial, were also in for the shock of their lives. While the organizers did not bother play the Mongolian national anthem, they announced that the Hong Kong anthem but for reasons best known to them failed to do so. Pang waited for several minutes for her national anthem to be played before leaving in a huff.
The incident left members of the foreign contingents shocked. “The public announcement system over here does not operate a DVD. It only operates pen drives, and we do not have that,” a member of the organising committee told The Pioneer.
“We did try to play it (anthems) somehow. But, there was no sound system in place. It’s a Formula One track so it did not have a facility where flags could be displayed. These things will be put in order by tomorrow,” Omkar Singh said.