Kerala declared overall champion

NEW DELHI, FEB 1. The Amateur Athletic Federation of India (AAFI) on Thursday officially declared Kerala as the overall champion of the 16th inter-State junior athletic championships held in Bangalore recently.

Originally, at the conclusion of the meet on January 20, Tamil Nadu was declared the overall champion, leading to a controversy, with the Kerala athletes getting involved in an unseemly scene during the closing ceremony. However, on a revision of the points tally, after the AAFI received the complete results from the Karnataka association, it was found that Kerala had secured 391 points as against Tamil Nadu's 357.

The AAFI Secretary, Mr. Lalit Bhanot, said that there was some confusion regarding the overall championship and the AAFI had decided to review the points tally in all sections. He added that no result was revised in any section, though points were not allocated for those who were provisionally debarred for being over-age. Following the provisional suspension of such athletes, the lower placings were not upgraded either since the debarred athletes had been given 30 days time to appeal to the federation.

Even if the points for the suspended athletes were to be taken into consideration, hypothetically, then also there would be no change in the overall championship, Mr. Bhanot pointed out.

The suspended athletes were now being advised to prove the genuineness of their age, failing which they face a one-year ban. Many of the athletes had submitted photocopies of the school leaving certificates for age verification and though some of them failed the medical examination, their cases would have to be reviewed in the event of original certificates being submitted on appeal, Mr. Bhanot said.

The following are the revised team championships for the junior National, as announced by the AAFI:

Boys under-20: Kerala (59 points), girls under-20: Tamil Nadu (107), boys under-18: Uttar Pradesh (62), girls under-18: Kerala (105), boys under-16: Uttar Pradesh (53), girls under-16: Kerala (77).

Overall championship: Kerala (391).

The following athletes have been provisionally suspended for one year, pending appeal:

Vishal Singh Sodi (J and K), Harpreet Singh (Punjab), Ranvijay Singh (UP), K. Satishweran (TN), Pushpinder Singh (Punjab), Jagmander (Chandigarh), Amardeep Singh (Punjab), Gursevak Singh (Punjab), Harpal Singh (Punjab), Satish Kumar (Delhi), Upendra Singh (Rajasthan), Tippu Hembram (Orissa), Rampal and Jagmohan Singh (Gujarat), M. Palani Kumar (TN), Pratap Rathwa (Gujarat), Hamsu (TN), Arun Mishra (AAFI-Jharkand), Barmeshwar Nath (Bihar), Gajjan Kumar Upadhyaya (Bihar), Aishwarya (Bihar), Anto Jose and Nikhil (Kerala), Pradeep (AAFI- Jharkand) and Vinod (TN).

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Section  : Sport
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