Sensitive equipments behind false starts

False starts have disrupted the sprint events many times at the Asian Championships here, with the both the 100M finals suffering on Friday night.

There were two false starts in the men’s 100M final and one in the women’s final. China’s Tang Xingqiang and Malaysian Khairul Hafiz were disqualified in the men’s race but the Malaysians lodged a protest which was rejected on Saturday.

Along with that, Qatar’s Tosin Ogunode, who had originally finished fifth, too was disqualified after the officials studied further available evidence.

Athletics Federation of India Secretary C K Valson said sensitive equipment on use here had resulted in the false starts.

“In eleven races, there have been eight false starts. We are using a very sensitive equipment, so even the slightest movement in the starting blocks will trigger a false start,” Valson said.

“After the Malaysian protest, we also used a high definition camera which the Japanese were using, to study the starts. It confirmed our decisions were right.”

Iran’s Hassan Taftian had won the gold in the men’s event while Kazakhstan’s Viktoriya Zyabkina had claimed the women’s title.

Chopra honoured
India’s junior world champion in javelin throw, Neeraj Chopra, was presented with the world record plaque by the International Association of Athletics Federation on Saturday, reports DHNS from Bhubaneswar.

Chopra had set a junior world record of 86.47M to win the crown in Poland last year. The plaque, in recognition of the feat, was presented to him by Adille Sumariwalla, IAAF Council member and president of the Athletics Federation of India.