On return from Junior National Athletics Championships, Delhi athletes forced to sleep on train floor

Athlete said he was shocked at the apathy of the officials. (Source: Express)

Almost 30 athletes and only two confirmed tickets. That is how Delhi’s athletics team made its 30-hour journey back from Vijayawada after competing in the Junior National Athletics Championships that concluded on Monday.

The athletes, after a tiring day of competition, boarded the train at 9:30 pm on Monday only to realise that all but two had unconfirmed tickets. The youngsters were forced to sleep on the floor, some even slept under seats while others crammed into temporarily vacant seats which they were asked to leave when the reserved passengers arrived.

“We have undergone so much pain in the last two days. Some athletes stood for hours and did not even find a seat to rest for a while. Some slept near the toilets,” Pradeep Atri, a discus thrower, told The Indian Express. Atri had made his own reservations but was upset that his friends could not find seats. He even made a video and uploaded it on Facebook.

“My body is still hurting. In fact, I am at the hospital now and undergoing physiotherapy. I already had a muscle strain and this tiring journey has made it worse,” another athlete said.

Sandeep Mehta, secretary of Delhi Athletics Association, said the reason for the fiasco was the postponement of the championships. The event, which was slated to start on November 10, was pushed back to November 16. “We can’t book tickets unless we get a confirmed date. We got to know about the final dates on October 19 only and we booked the tickets then itself. Tickets to Vijayawada were confirmed but due to the postponement we could not manage to get confirmed return tickets,” Mehta said.

However, as per the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) website, the circular on the postponement of the event was sent on October 4 itself, 15 days before the tickets were arranged. When quizzed as to why the association had delayed booking the tickets despite receiving the notification a fortnight earlier, Mehta said they “needed time to finalise the team and complete some formalities.”

According to Mehta, only 18 athletes returned with the team by train, a claim Pradeep denies. “The video posted on Facebook shows you only one compartment. We were scattered throughout the train. One athlete fell unconscious after standing for hours. Why are we constantly humiliated like this?,” he asked.

Another athlete said he was shocked at the apathy of the officials. “I am heartbroken. We did not ask for A/C tickets. All we wanted was to travel in a dignified manner. People kept shooing us away the whole night since our tickets were not confirmed. Is this the way you treat a national athlete?”

The youngsters also complained about the meagre allowance of Rs 500 that they received for the meet, which did not even suffice for food coupons. “Rs 500? For five days at the competition, plus four days of travel time. My father is a driver and he can’t afford much or else I would have made my own arrangements,” an athlete complained.

In the video, upcoming sprinter Shabnam Shokeen is seen sitting crouched in the middle berth. “It is a fact that not even once we’ve had confirmed seats during our Nationals,” she says. About 120 athletes from Delhi took part in the four-day event but most of them chose to make their own travel arrangements. According to an athlete, 28 people boarded the train for the two-night journey.

Atri said this is not a stray incident and that he has faced such issues on several occasions.