93 overaged athletes stopped from competing at junior Nationals

Many of the disqualified athletes belonged to Haryana and Rajasthan, an Athletics Federation of India official says.

Special cards with unique ID numbers will be issued to all athletes to avoid the age-verification process at every meet. (Representative Image)

Over 90 athletes were stopped from competing in the 35th National junior athletics championships after failing age-verification tests.

“Many of them are from Haryana, UP and Rajasthan,” Nitin Arya, the Athletics Federation of India’s Manager-Competitions told Sportstar while confirming the number as 93.

The age-fudging issue had troubled the sport for long and 41 athletes, including star sprinter Nisar Ahmed, were found overage and disqualified from the Youth Nationals in Raipur early this year.

Three others were disqualified at the junior Nationals in Guntur for violating the federation’s no-needle policy on the opening day of the five-day meet and the entries of nearly 200 athletes were rejected as their age-proof certificates were not in order.

“Officials are keeping a close watch and the three athletes were caught with syringes,” said the official.

The AFI also started the process of biometric registration of athletes at Guntur to tackle the age-fraud issue.

Special cards with unique ID numbers will be issued to all athletes to avoid the age-verification process at every meet.