Thanks to the uncaring attitude of Indian officials who provided not even water, India’s national record holder OP Jaisha collapsed at the end of the Marathon (42.195 km) run in Rio.
Even though there were officials from all other nations to provide refreshments to their runners at every 2.5 km, designated points, there was no one official at Indian desks. Athletes of all other nations had the luxury of glucose, honey etc. at refreshment points but there was nothing, not even water, for the Indian athletes at the country’s designated desks.
‘The event organizers provided water and sponge at 8-km intervals but that lasted hardly 500m. It was almost impossible to complete the run under the scorching sun,” explained Jaisha about her grueling ordeal. The national record holder said that she collapsed at the end of the run and didn’t know what happened until she regained consciousness after 3 hours.
“I was injected seven bottles of glucose to recover. Much to the shock, I didn’t see any doctor from our country and my fellow athletes and coach were the only to help me recover,” added the distraught runner.
‘How can we expect our athletes to win medals for us with this kind of support from officials and Government? Instead of showering too many goodies on the 1 or 2 winners, if the govt. spends funds on our athletes, we have many enough talented sportspersons to bring laurels for the country,’ opine rational thinkers.