Specific Information Service
CHENNAI: Infighting between rival factions and parallel nationwide sports activities federations being run by them might price pricey to athletes within the upcoming 2022 Nationwide Video games.
Despite the fact that the Nationwide Video games are solely days away, handball gamers will not be but sure about their participation within the occasion. And the uncertainty prevails as two NSFs claiming to be operating the game within the nation have despatched their respective entries for the occasion to the Indian Olympics Affiliation (IOA). Given the scenario, the IOA has but to approve the entries giving sleepless nights to groups from the 2 factions.
The Video games, being held after a niche of seven years, are scheduled throughout six cities of Gujarat from September 29 to October 12. Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Rajkot, Bhavnagar, Surat and Gandhinagar are the host cities.
Two variations of handball are proposed on the Video games — seashore and indoor occasions. The previous is scheduled in Surat whereas the indoor handball shall be hosted by Vadodara. Each factions are claiming legitimacy.
On being queried, the IOA requested to attend for 2 days for the difficulty to get resolved.
The secretary-general of one of many federations, Handball Affiliation India (HAI), additionally sang from the identical hymn sheet.
“We’ve got despatched the entries. We’re fairly certain the IOA will rule in our favour because the NOC accepts the federation, which is recognised by the worldwide physique. We had an annual normal assembly in Lucknow on Sunday and representatives from the worldwide and Asian our bodies had been there. They are going to quickly submit their report and we are going to produce it earlier than the IOA which is able to pave approach for the participation of our groups,” Tejraj Singh, secretary-general of HAI, instructed this each day.
Nevertheless, Pritpal Singh Saluja, secretary-general of the Handball Federation of India (HFI), accused the IOA of favouring the opposite faction. Claiming that the HFI is the authorised physique to run the game within the nation, he asserted, “Our groups ought to compete on the Nationwide Video games because the HFI is in existence since 1972. If that does not occur, I’ll transfer the court docket in opposition to the choice.
“Each the factions have despatched entries in males’s and girls’s classes for each seashore and indoor handball. Prime-8 groups from the earlier nationals had been despatched in every class. Within the indoor occasion every workforce contains 16 gamers whereas within the seashore occasion, each workforce consists of 10 gamers.
“As per the court docket order, we held elections on August 14 and communicated the identical to the IOA and different companies involved. Earlier than the elections, the administrator who was answerable for day-to-day affairs of the federation despatched the names and as soon as the elections obtained over, we resent the names on August 17. If the IOA does not rule in our favour then we are going to add the difficulty with our petition which is scheduled to be heard on September 19 within the Excessive Court docket in Chandigarh,” added Saluja.
Whilst Saluja claimed that their rival faction has eliminated deserving groups from the listing, Singh stated they’ve chosen groups on the premise of their performances within the earlier nationals.
“Senior nationals in males’s class had been held in Jaipur from March 20-25 this 12 months whereas the ladies’s nationals had been held in Hyderabad from March 29 to April 3. We’ve got chosen the top-8 groups from the nationals. Seashore nationals weren’t organised within the final couple of years so now we have chosen the top-8 groups from the final held nationals,” stated Singh.
It’s learnt that entries from no less than two different nationwide federations are additionally on maintain for diverse causes. One such federation is taekwondo whose athletes are but to get readability on their participation. Taekwondo is one other sport that has recognition points.