Jisna Mathew.
| Photo Credit: File photo: K. Raagesh
P.T. Usha may have been one of the country’s greatest athletes and her Usha School of Athletics may have produced Tintu Luka, who helped India break the Asian Games record while winning the 4x400m relay gold in Incheon 2014, and former Asian silver medallist quarter-miler Jisna Mathew but her academy is no longer in favour when it comes picking the country’s best relay runners.
That was the explanation offered by Adille Sumariwalla, the president of Athletics Federation of India, for not offering a berth to Jisna Mathew in the 4x400m relay team for this month’s Paris Olympics.
“Usha School is not part of (national) camp as notified by the Sports Authority of India. Jisna (who trains at the Usha School near Kozhikode) is a non-camper. As per policy, we cannot consider her,” Sumariwalla told The Hindu on Thursday. “Her name was in the National camp (at Thiruvananthapuram) and she did not join.”
The AFI has a policy of not including non-national campers in the Indian relay team for the majors but sadly Usha’s School, which was part of the National camp earlier, is not so now.
Jisna was shattered when she found out that she was not included in the women’s relay team. “It’s been like this for the last six years, they have not been including me on one pretext or the other,” said Jisna.
The AFI has a feeling that non-national campers could be on dope and that it why it has a policy of excluding them from relay teams. And with news coming in that non-camper Deepanshi, who finished second with 52.01s in the inter-State meet, testing positive, it may be true to some extent but Jisna’s case is very different.
Unlike many national campers who play a hide-and-seek game, often skipping competitions, Jisna has been a regular on the circuit. And while one noticed a strange dip in form among the national campers — three of the campers (Semifinals: Prachi 53.61s, M.R. Poovamma 54.35 and Vithya Ramraj disqualified for false start) who have now got berths in the Olympic relay team could not even qualify for the final at the recent Inter-State Nationals, the last selection trials for Paris.
Jisna (53.01s) was sixth in the inter-State final with three non-campers Kiran Pahal, Deepanshi and Neeru Pahtak finishing above her.
And some of the National campers who have gained Paris berths are no saints.
Prachi and Poovamma were suspended for dope a few years ago and many of the national campers’ inexplicable slide at the recent Nationals has raised eyebrows.
Incidentally, in the AFI’s selection guidelines for the Paris Olympics, one clause points out the federation’s right to reject any athlete who fails to maintain his performance in the final selection competition even if he has achieved the World Athletics’ qualification standard or figures in the world rankings.
Strangely, that seems to have been thrown out while selecting the relay team.