Dhaka: The men's full marathon event on the
concluding day of the 11th South Asian Games turned into a
farce as the official distance of 42.195km was not adhered for
the meet.
The medal ceremony was held with gold to Nepal's Rajendra
Bahadur Bhandari, silver to Sri Lanka's Ajith Bandara Adikari
and bronze to India's Ram Singh.
But soon after the bizzare, sub-two hour timings were
withheld with Sri Lanka lodging an official complaint.
"The full marathon which should have been actually
42.195kms was shorter by seven kilometres. Having seen the
record sub two-hour timing we lodged a protest paying USD
100," said a Sri Lankan technical official.
Five runners in total competed in the men's full marathon
which was flagged off early in the morning today.
But the jury is yet to give a final verdict, even as the
medals have been given to the top three finishers.
When asked about this, the secretary general of
Bangladesh Olympic Association, Kutubuddin Ahmed found himself
in a difficult position to explain as he only said: "We are
looking into the complaint. We will come back with answers
soon."
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, February 09, 2010, 20:18