Four Indian athletes found to be overage for Asian Junior Badminton Championships

An age determination test was held on October 2nd

The Sports Authority of India(SAI) ordered an inspection of the national teams, for the Asia U-17 & U-15 Junior Championships. A bone age determination test at Ram Manohar Lohia hospital was finalized on October 2, as reported by Times of India. The order seems to have paid dividends as four of the U-17 shuttlers, who were destined to take part in the Asian Junior badminton championships in Indonesia, have been found over age.

SAI received various complaints about athletes using fake certificates and forging their age to play in a favourable age group. As a result of which age determination tests were ordered and four players in the U-17 age group -Siril Varma, Bhavya Rishi, Kalpita Sawant and Kanika Kanwal were found to be overage. It was made sure by SAI that any of the players who are not cleared will not be sent to the championships by the government.

Surprisingly, none of the U-15 shuttlers have been cleared because Ram Manohar Lohia hospital refused to use the bone age determination tests on them, the reason being ill-effects of radiation on younger kids. Chief national coach Pullela Gopichand's daughter Gayatri is among those in the U-15 squad who will miss the tournament.

Some of the parents of the U-15 shuttlers are not happy with the way SAI are treating their children and are adamant on making their own plans to reach Indonesia. Though, government and the authorities have already made clear that athletes won’t be allowed to take part in the competition unless and until they have a clearance from the government.

One of the frustrated parents told Times of India, "They brought the players to Delhi a week back to conduct the tests. They asked us to be ready every day but did not conduct any test.Now we don't know whether these kids will be sent or not. One official says that the government has not cleared the team; another says we have to go on our own. The tournament starts on Wednesday. It is sheer mismanagement,"

This is not the first time that Indian shuttlers have to suffer because of mismanagement from the authorities, some of the U-19 shuttlers were stopped from participating in Youth Asian Games 2013 in China.

"This is absolutely stupid. My daughter Ritika missed the West Zone championship last week because she had to join the preparatory camp in Lucknow, which was later shifted to New Delhi. After attending the camp for nearly 10 days and missing the West Zone tournament, she is not going to Indonesia. How can I buy tickets for Rs 80,000?" Rahul Thaker, father of Ritika, who has been selected in the U-15 squad, said.

Though authorities try their best to curb down the wrong doings in this country’s sports system, but some incidents like this only hamper the trust of athletes and their parents towards the authority concerned, leaving a bad taste in everyone’s mouth.

Earlier today, Jwala Gutta reacted to the incident:

When a player wins d coaches academies get all the credit..what happens when players get caught in age fraud?? Who should get the credit?

— Gutta Jwala (@Guttajwala) October 6, 2015