A day after the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) rejected the entries of the State athletes for the Open Nationals sent by the Sports Authority of Karnataka (SAK), the Department of Youth Empowerment and Sports (DYES) remained hopeful of finding a solution to the issue.

The AFI rejected the SAK entries, stating that as per its constitution, only entries sent by its affiliated units could be accepted, and pointed out that the entry deadline was August 22 in this case.

DYES director Vikash Kumar Vikash, in a letter to the AFI secretary C K Valson on Tuesday, pointed out that the trials called by the Karnataka Athletics Association (KAA) was on August 27, five days after the entry deadline set by the AFI.  He also requested the AFI to permit the Karnataka athletes to contest under the banner of AFI if entries sent by the Sports Authority of Karnataka cannot be accepted on technical grounds.

DYES had made arrangements for the nine selected athletes to travel to Ranchi on September 4 for the championships to be held from September 7 to 10.

However, AFI sources indicated that a change in their position was unlikely, and that means the State athletes will miss out the nationals for no fault of theirs.