Asian Games Organizers reject entries of Ushan and Mix 4x400M relay due to technical errors by Sri Lankan authorities

The Organizing Committee of the Asian Games 2018, rejected the Sri Lankan entries of Ushan Thiwanka (High Jump) and the 4x400m Mixed Relay, due to technical errors made by the local authorities following the Delegations’ Registration Meeting (DRM) held in Jakarta, Indonesia on Monday 13^th .

The Asian Games will be held from 18 August to 2 September in Indonesia, with athletics competitions starting on the 25th.

Ushan’s performance was just 0.01cm behind last Asian Games Bronze medalist, while 4x400m Mixed Relay Sri Lanka team is well within medal range (only behind India within the Asian region), which raised many an eye brow over the incident, with athletes left devastated after the news.

Ushan’s rejection

As for the National Olympic Committee (NOC), Ushan’s entry had not been included in the long list by the Athletics Association (AASL) as per the online system which only came to the attention of the NOC on the 9 July, after the AASL inquired about the non-availability of Ushan’s documents. (Entry deadline for the Asian Games was 30 June).

The NOC also stated that they did not do the entering of any athletes as they gave access to the representative from each National Sports Federation to do the entries of the long lists on their own.

“It’s the responsibility of the National Sports federation to properly enter their respective athletes to the online system. We allocated a time slot and asked for representatives from the National Sports Federations to come to NOC to enter their athletes into the system. They should have ensured that they entered all of their athletes properly,” said Maxwell de Silva, Secretary General of the NOC, when an inquiry was made about the issue.

Nevertheless, the incident resulted in the AASL making another appeal on behalf of Ushan, which was categorized as a late entry, which has ultimately been rejected by the organizers at the DRM held in Indonesia.

A devastated Thiwanka had been left in a quandary by the incident, so he went to meet the Sports Minister Faizer Musthapha yesterday. But, Thiwanka had another bitter experience of having to wait for hours to meet him.

It’s noteworthy mentioning, that Musthapha was out of the country for the past few days and the Asian Games team from Sri Lanka was not approved by him until last night even though the team had been scheduled to fly out last night.

Musthapha seemed so focus on looking for publicity through cricket on Saturday night, rather than attending to more pressing matters regarding the number of sports related to the Asian Games, which left athletes in jeopardy with the Minister’s approval still pending, even on Tuesday night, for the Sri Lanka contingent of over 200.

Mix Relay rejection

The DRM had decided to remove Sri Lanka’s entry for the 4x400m mixed relay, as the organizers cited that only Upamalika Rathnakumari has been entered as the athlete in the mixed relay.

The AASL had decided to run the mixed relay with Aruna Darshana, Dilip Ruwan, Upamalika Rathnakumari (who was already accredited in the long list) and Rumeshika Rathnayaka. But, as for the Asian Games organizers, the AASL had not mentioned the mixed relay had any other athlete for the event apart from Upamalika Rathnakumari where the organizers had rejected, the entry of Upamalika (citing there can’t be one athlete to compete in a relay) and ultimately the Sri Lankan entry for the mixed relay.

The AASL stated that the NOC had not responded properly to their numerous appeals, regarding the incident. Also, the AASL stated that the Asian Games organizers had replied to them stating that the athletics competition of the Asian Games aren’t conducted according to the IAAF rules and regulation but to the regulations of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA).

They also, stated that the NOC which is responsible for sending the Sri Lankan team to the Asian Games and to approve the entries, failed to notice any mistakes made by the National Associations, if there were any, for months. But, they acted immediately to remove the entries of athletes when the so called National Selection Committee removed the entry of athletes unjustifiably (ie: removing Sumedha Ranasinghe) without even notifying the National Association regarding such actions.

Sri Lanka missed two possible medals?

Sri Lanka was within reach of a Silver medal in the mixed 4x400m relay and Ushan’s best performance of 2.24 m, just 0.01cm behind the 2014 edition’s bronze medalist (2.25m) and was also within the medal range of the 2010 Asian Games.

Ultimately, having competed immensely well in every given situation the two athletes had been denied the chance of competing at the Asian Games by blundering officials while also taking away the chances and the dream of two medals for Sri Lanka at the Asian Games.

Asian Games 2010

Asian Games 2014

Track and field athletes left to save SL blushes among 100s of Joy riders

Sri Lanka had only 11 Gold medals in the history of the Asian Games, and 10 of them were won by track and field athletes. Out of Sri Lanka’s 47 medals won at the Asian Games, 26 have been by track and field athletes. Hence, it’s obvious that the NOC should have given more attention, chances, quota, flexibility and authority for the Athletics Association, when it came to these Games in particular, since it’s track and field athletes who came forward to save NOC blushes more often than not.

The NOC had fielded 176 athletes for the Asian Games this year; with team events, which is nowhere near the medal range filling more than 100 spots. To top that, several officials who do not have any work at the Asian Games are ready to take wing at the expenses of the NOC and Sports Ministry and once again it will be the remaining 12 track and field athletes who are left to save their blushes with medals.

Asian Games Medals by sport(Sri Lanka)

Not the first time

The complex entry system had resulted in a devastating experience for athletes before, as the long jumper Amila Jayasiri who leapt 7.86m in 2014 was not included for the Asian Games citing that his name was not on the list even though AASL made an appeal well before the Games. Ultimately, the bronze medal of the Games was won on a performance of 7.86m. Jayasiri leapt 8.02m this year at the National Championship which is better than the Asian Games gold medal winner in 2014 where the AASL made another appeal to the NOC for the inclusion of Amila for the Asian Games, which was again rejected.

Also, since the mixed relay is conducted for the first time at the Games and the AASL had not properly directed its inclusion before the long list was prepared in April, the female 400m runners had been excluded from the long list apart from the top 400m runner Rathnakumari.

When the AASL got to know about the mixed relay’s inclusion early June, they made an immediate appeal on behalf of Nadeesha Ramanayaka to be entered to the team, as Sri Lanka was only behind India in the event but the appeal was rejected.