An athlete representing Tamil Nadu was forced to run the 400m hurdles solo on Saturday morning after officials made a blunder during her heat.
The controversial incident took place on Friday during the women's 400m hurdles at the National Inter-State Championships, which also serves as an Asian Games qualifier.
Harshitha clocked an impressive personal best of 1:01:03, coming third in her heat, and her qualification to the final was initially confirmed. But later, it was found that the fifth hurdle in her lane was missing, and she had crossed over to clear it in Lane 7. She was placed in Lane 8.
Initially, the officials disqualified her, but after a verbal protest, the Athletics Federation of India allowed her to run another race on Saturday morning, provided she ran under 1:02:00 to qualify for the final. It was her third race in less than 48 hours, with hardly any time for recovery in between.
World Athletics Competition Rule 18.7 says: "If, in the opinion of the appropriate Referee, circumstances arise at any competition such that justice demands that any event or any part of an event should be contested again, they shall have authority to declare the event or any part of an event void and that it shall be held again, either on the same day or on some future occasion, as they shall decide."
Meanwhile, she was the one who filed the complaint after her race, pointing out that the fifth hurdle was missing.
The temperature in Bhubaneshwar at the time of her rerun on Saturday morning was in the mid-30s with high humidity. The Odisha government had also issued a heat warning. The race was also delayed due to issues with the starter's pistol and photo-finish system.
Running solo, she tried her best to qualify, but fell short, clocking 1:02:54. "I decided to take it as if I was running a semifinals. I’m looking forward to running in the final," she said.
"Everyone else (in the 400m hurdles) only had to run two races (heats and finals) but I had to run three races. It’s not fair."
She also revealed that she had been initially disqualified for crossing into another lane. But then she pointed out that it wasn't her fault.
"They told me that even if I didn’t have a hurdle in my lane, I was at fault because I crossed lanes. They said I should have continued running in my lane. But all hurdlers have a rhythm. If I missed a hurdle I would have lost my rhythm."