No entry sent, marathoner Man Singh can’t defend Asian title

BENGALURU: Asian champion Man Singh will not be able to defend his title in the 20th Asian Marathon Championships to be held in Jiaxing, China, on March 30. The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) officials allegedly failed to submit the names of Indian athletes before the entry deadline.
The alleged goof-up could cost the Army athlete a berth in the World Championships to be held in Tokyo later this year as he will lose out on valuable ranking points.
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“It’s a big disappointment for Man Singh as he was training hard to climb the podium in China and also to advance in the world rankings in Road To Tokyo list,” sources in athletics circles told TOI. “The athletes were earlier sounded out but two weeks back they were told that none of the athletes are going,” they added.
According to sources, once AFI realised that they had missed the date, the newly elected office-bearers tried hard to get an entry at least for Man Singh but nothing worked as the deadline had passed on February 28. AFI now plans to send Man Singh to next month’s Hamburg Marathon, but it would be an uphill task for Singh to make the cut for Tokyo.
AFI officials said the athletes were not entered for the Asian meet as they were not ready.
“We were told our athletes are not ready. That’s why we dropped out. It’s wrong to say that we missed the deadline,” an official told TOI.
This will be the second no-show by Indian athletes, after none of the qualified athletes were entered for the recent World Indoor Athletics.