On Friday, the High Court (HC) of Kerala instructed the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) to add the State Athlete, P.U. Chithra in the National Squad. The demand is to add her for the next month’s World Athletics Championship. The case has been posted for further hearing on Monday. The Court is directing the AFI and the Center to make sure she is in the squad.
Chithra’s coach had made a strong point that she is eligible for inclusion and she is also qualified. Following this, the directive from the Court came.
The Court questioned the Center on Thursday to explain why Chithra was left out of the National Squad in spite of being qualified for next month’s World Athletics Championship.
The Court also asked the Central government if it has the right to be involved in this issue. In case, if the central government has the right to intervene, the Court wants it to explain which are all the relevant provisions in the rules. In addition to this, the Court also claimed the matters related to selection process are not fair.
On Friday, Chief Minister, Pinarayi Vijayan told the Center the whole State is in support of her and wished her all success.
“The intervention of the Kerala High Court is most gratifying to hear. This shows that the AFI did not do a fair job. All sports lovers had strongly condemned the exclusion of Chithra,” he said.
The Athlete expressed her happiness and thanked everyone who supported her after knowing her name was dropped out.
As there are deadlines for entries, it is still not sure whether she will be allowed to participate or not.
As per the selection norms and principles of the International Association of Athletics Federations, an athlete can be qualified for the World Championships by satisfying the qualification standards or by winning gold at continental events.
