One of the country’s best swimmer, Kushagra Rawat of Shri Ram College of Commerce, who has achieved the Olympic B-qualification time for Tokyo Games, has lodged a protest against the organisers for wrong results in the ongoing all India inter-University aquatic championship being held at the Lovely Professional University in Phagwara, Punjab.
Representing the Delhi University, Kushagra had clocked a record time of 3 minutes 59.63 seconds in the 400-metre freestyle event. However, he was denied the gold in the results, declared 24 hours later, with Sahil Chopra of the host University being credited the same time, and credited with the gold.
Quite glaringly, in the 50-metre butterfly event, Sahil Chopra was seen taking a blatant false start, with video evidence, but he went on to get the gold with a time of 24.32 seconds, ahead of Mihir Ambre of Savitri Bhai Phulle University, Pune, who clocked 24.40 seconds.
Apart from the clear video evidence, Mihir Ambre has put the freeze frames of the start to expose the fact that he had been cheated of the gold. Writing a protest letter to the organisers, Kushagra also pointed out that he had come second in the 400-metre individual medley, but had been pushed to the third spot, in the results declared 24 hours later, with Abhay Singh of the Lovely University being awarded the second place.
Kushagra Rawat has sought complete video recording of the events, and the evidence of finishing reports, time-keepers timings, apart from an explanation for such late declaration of results. He has sent a copy of the protest to the Association of Indian Universities, the Union Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, apart from the Sports Director of the Lovely Professional University.
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