All India Inter-University Swimming under scrutiny for rigging results

The All India Inter-University swimming meet at the Lovely Professional University (LPU) in Jalandhar came under official scanner after some top swimmers of the country complained that the results were being manipulated to suit swimmers from universities in Punjab. In a video shared by swimmer Anshul Kothari on Twitter, which was widely circulated, in the 50m butterfly, the video showed Sahil Chopra of the LPU making a false start. But he was allowed and he won gold with 24.32s timing.

An Indian Express report stated that automatic touchpads were not being used and officials were relying on manual time-keeping, which created further issues.

“This was a waste of time, energy and money. What we saw was discouraging. When we complained, we got death threats,” Bengaluru Jain University’s Srihari Natraj, who is a national champion and skipped FINA World Cup for the event, was quoted as saying by the New India Express.

According to the Association of Indian Universities secretary-general Pankaj Mittal, the mistakes have been rectified now.

In response to the issue, Dr. Baljit Singh Sekhon, the Joint Secretary of Youth Affairs and Sport, has written to the Director of Sport and the Organising Secretary of LPU about the complaints where he has asked the LPU to reply within 24 hours and treat the matter as urgent. The name of the officials deputed to conduct the event is to be provided and in case any officials were involved in the malpractice, they are to be removed from duty at once.

Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju also addressed the issue on Twitter and said action will be taken soon.

“I would like to make it very clear; All organizations must ensure integrity of Sports. Transparency, fairness and equity in the sport world is a basic condition necessary to enhance opportunities for everyone to participate. There should be no scope for manipulation.”

A top Swimming Federation of India official said that this is not the first time results at inter-university meets have been manipulated.

“But there’s nothing the SFI can do because we don’t have a mandate or any authority at events conducted by the university games federation. As a result, no SFI official can be present at the competition. We can go and officiate at such an event only if we are invited, which we rarely are,” Chokshi Monal, secretary-general of the SFI, was quoted as saying by The Indian Express.