The Hindu : Sport : Why was Joshna overlooked?

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Mar 04, 2005

Sport

Sport

Why was Joshna overlooked?

Joshna Chinappa, after being overlooked for a cash prize by the Sports Ministry, is understandably dejected.

CHENNAI, MARCH 3. Joshna Chinappa knew of her not being in the government's list of cash award winners on Wednesday from a shooter friend who rang up from Delhi wondering why her name had been excluded.

As reported, Saurav Ghosal and Ritwik Bhattacharya received Rs. 4.5 lakhs each while Manish Chotrani and Siddarth Suchde received Rs. 75,000 each. The last two claimed a bronze medal for India in the Asian championship in Kuala Lumpur last year. Saurav and Ritwik too were part of the team. In addition these two had won silver in the World doubles championship held here in December.

Understandably dejected, Joshna wondered why she was denied this recognition. She had won a bronze in the individual event in the same 2004 Asian championship. Besides, if other performances mattered then she was the runner-up at the British Open under-19, anchored a gold in the SAF Games (both individual and team event), the Malaysian under-19 title and the junior and senior National titles.

Speaking on her behalf, father Anjan Chinappa said he was concerned if there had been a lapse on the part of the federation in recommending Joshna's name to the Sports Ministry or if the latter had overlooked her credentials.

To a squash enthusiast the initial reaction on not finding Joshna in the list was one of surprise. According to the guidelines which the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports follows, cash prizes are given to international medal winners in senior, junior and sub-junior categories. It means that the medal must have come either in a World championship, Olympics, Asian Games, Asian championship, Commonwealth Games or Commonwealth championship.

Mr. N. Ramachandran, SRFI secretary-general, however, clarified that the federation always sent a report to the Ministry on the performances of Indian players and teams after each international event. The Ministry then, he said, would check the norms and identify the qualifiers. But the point is, if Ghosal, Ritwik, Siddarth and Manish could be considered for their bronze medal performance in the Asian championship how could Joshna be excluded, having taken a bronze in the same championship?

Unlike the team event in squash, there is no play-off for the third place in individual competition. She and Rebecca Chiu (Hong Kong) as semifinal losers received a bronze each. — Our Special Correspondent

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