Asian Athletics Championships | Indian contingent denied medal upgrade in 10,000m event

India’s long-distance runner Murli Kumar Gavit won the bronze medal in the men’s 10,000m event at the Asian Athletics Championships being held in Doha, Qatar, after he finished third behind Bahrain’s Hassan Chani. However, the Indian contingent filed a verbal protest against Chani after the runner was found to have broken a technical rule.

The Bahrain native did not wear a bib on his back during the long-distance event which is against the rules. As per the International Athletics Federation’s (IAAF) competition rules, every athlete has to be provided with two bibs that should be 'worn visibly' on the chest and back. The rules further say that these bibs "must be worn as issued and may not be cut, folded or obscured in any way". If it's not followed, the rules say, the athlete should be disqualified. However, India’s complaint was dismissed by the technical delegate.

Instead, the delegate just handed out a yellow card or warning to the Bahraini runner on the ground that it was a mistake by the officials who had failed to spot the missing bib. If they were to give a decision based on rule by spirit, as technical officials do in most events, Chani should have been disqualified, which would have given Murli an upgrade to a silver medal.

"This is an infringement of technical rules. As you can get disqualified for false start or lane change, similarly you can get disqualified for not wearing bibs. We had lodged an oral protest. They said it's the fault of technical officials at call room who did not check. They said that the athlete was not at fault and they issued a yellow card," Athletics Federation of India's (AFI) Ravinder Chaudhury told TOI from Doha.