As per the IAAF rules, it is the duty of the federation and coach to assign their own officials at refreshment points, other than the ones handled by the organisers.
Advertisement
With no water to drink for 42 kilometres, Indian runner O.P Jaisha fainted after completing the marathon race at Rio Olympics 2016 on August 14.
The athlete reported that while every other country had made the necessary arrangements for their athletes, there were no officials at the designated points to provide her with refreshments and water.
“I don’t know how I managed to finish without getting enough water to drink”. The organizers provided water and sponge only at 8-km intervals. “All the countries had their stalls at every 2 kms but our country’s stall was empty”, said Jaisha who finished 89th in Rio Olympics women’s marathon event with a below-par timing of 2:47:19. This wonder woman has clocked a attractive 2:34.43 seconds in Beijing in 2015 to finish 18th. We did not have refreshment stations for the simple reason that they themselves said they wouldn’t need personal drinks.
Jaisha’s sister said: “After Jaisha had collapsed, she was sent to the dispensary and placed on a block of ice, where she developed a fever. May be nobody realises the seriousness of a marathon, the fact that we have to run 42kms”, she said.
“They injected seven bottles of glucose to help me recover”. India’s official doctor was unavailable and she was helped by fellow marathon runner Gopi T and coach Radhakrishnan Nair. “It was AFI’s job, it is the federation which should have taken care of this”, he told TOI.
“I was OK for the next few days. But now I’m feeling very weak and it will take at least 2-3 months of ayurvedic treatment and massage for my body to recover”, said the top athlete who reached here on Saturday night. Jaisha’s coach Nikolai also accompanied her for a few hours. She expressed her sadness saying that while officials from other countries were present with their national flags to support and encourage their athletes, nobody from India was to be seen.
Advertisement
Jaisha’s case has been the last straw highlighting the need to reform our worldwide sports bodies if we are to avoid embarrassing ourselves, and more importantly, doing a great disservice to the athletes who have endured enormous hardships to get to that stage. She also revealed that coach Nikolai was to be blamed for forcing her to run the entire marathon, despite all the problems, whereas she wanted to qualify for the 1500m. “Even when I suffered an injury during the training period the coach didn’t give me time to recover”. Moreover, we always trained early in the morning, first in Ooty and later in Rio. The temperature in Rio was 48-49 degree celsius, she added.
