Athletics Federation hits back at Jaisha for making groundless accusations

On Monday, Jaisha, who was one of India's entries in the Marathon event, had said, "Though there were officials from all other countries to provide refreshments to their runners at designated points -after every 2.5 km -there was no one from India and our desks were empty next to the country's name and flag," reported ToI.

The AFI vouches that the arrangement for the marathon race organised by the OC 2016 Rio Olympic Games was commendable and as per the rules and regulations pertaining to conduct of a marathon race. As per the prevailing rules and regulations, the organisers installed one water point per every 2.5km and one refreshment booth per every 2.5km. The quantity of drinks was enough and the Rio organisers did a wonderful job on this front as per requirement for a marathon race.

As far as the planning of the team management for the race is concerned, each team is allowed to keep their own personalised drinks on the booths, marked in a colour as per the choice of the team and athlete. Accordingly, as per the rule, on the night ahead of the women's marathon race, the Indian Team Manager carried 16 empty bottles, eight each for Jaisha and the other Indian women runner, Kavita Raut, and visited the duo and their coach, foreign expert Dr Nikolai Snesarev in their room and asked them to provide their choice of personalised drink which would then be sealed in their presence and handed over to the organisers for installing them on the booth along with a placard as per the requirement of the athlete.

In this case, the two athletes, Ms Jaisha and Ms Raut declined the offer and informed the Indian Team Manager that they didn't require personalised drink, and if at all they required it during the race, they would use the drinks available at the water booth and refreshment booth provided by the organisers. It is also informed that as per the rule an athlete stands to be disqualified if he or she accepts a drink from any other person or official standing along the course except taken on their own - be it personalised drink submitted to the organisers in advance or the drinks provided by the organisers on the water and refreshment booths respectively.

Also, as per the information shared by the organisers an ambulance would be made available within two minutes in the eventuality of an athlete fainting. The Rio organisers acted swiftly and provided an ambulance within two minutes after Ms Jaisha had fainted and within no time the Indian team manager and deputy chief coach of the Indian athletics team accompanied her to the hospital. In fact Dr Nikolai Snesarev out of concern for Ms Jaisha's health and safety even got into an altercation with a lady from the organising committee and faced time in a lock up for this purpose.

Further, it is also informed that Ms Jaisha had declined to use personalised drink in another event, the 2015 World Championships held in Beijing and the coach informed the Indian team management that she wasn't in the habit of using personalised drinks. It is also being informed that in the case of the three Indian men marathon runners, their coach Surender Singh had requested for personalised drinks for the three runners and the same was provided to them as per their requirement.  It is also to be noted that the temperature was 18 degree Celsius when the women's marathon had started and went on to reach 26 degree Celsius when the race concluded.

The AFI is disappointed to note that all these facts have not been put into public domain while inaccurate information have been highlighted based on a misleading interview with Ms Jaisha. The AFI has always treated the athletes as its top priority and such media reports are not only incorrect and misleading, but it also tarnishes the reputation of the sport, the officials and coaches who go beyond the call of duty to protect their athletes. We hope the above information will allay any apprehension and doubt regarding the motive and efficacy of the Indian team management towards the safety of our athlete in Rio and presents the true facts about the incident. We fail to comprehend why Ms Jaisha, who has been nurtured and trained with relentless dedication by the foreign expert and the AFI for years, chose to state incorrect information in her interview to a section of the media.