Asian Games 2018: Indian Taekwondo players plan to move to court against Asiad selection

What’s the story?

Taekwondo players all over the country are angered by the Taekwondo Federation of India (TFI) and their selection process for the 2018 Asian Games. The players have said that they are willing to head to court if the matter does not get solved quickly.

In case you didn’t know

The 2018 Asian Games is set to commence from 18th August and the last date for sending in the names of selected players to Indian Olympic Association (IOA) was June 30th.

However, the TFI have prepared to hold trials from the 5th to 7th of July. The assessment is to be conducted in Ranchi, and according to Vinay Singh, the founder of Peace Sports Trust, has been organized to “distract the attention of the athletes”.

The heart of the matter

The selection of any team for the Asian Games deserves a fair and just assessment of all players involved. Athletes train hard for a ticket to participate in international competitions and require impartial judgement from authorities.

A few voices have been raised against the selection process, and Vinay Singh has been vocal against how the players have been treated. He said, “We are planning to move to court against the federation. Five female athletes have been selected. Although they may not have been named officially, but from our sources, we have come to know of the names.”

Singh continued, “Apart from (those) who went for the Asian Games in 2010, 2014... the rest have no background.”

What’s next?

It remains to be seen whether the players take to court or the Federation decides to relieve their plight. However, either way, with only a little more than a month to go for the Asian Games to begin, the players would feel hard done with the state of affairs.