The strange story of how Anas lost his Asian Championships berth

Muhammed Anas in action at the recent National Inter-State Championships in Bhubaneswar.
| Photo Credit: RITU RAJ KONWAR

Muhammed Anas is the national record-holder in the quartermile and had helped India to the 4x400m mixed relay gold and the men’s relay silver at the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games.

The 28-year-old was also a bronze medallist in the Federation Cup, in Ranchi in mid-May, which was the Athletics Federation of India’s selection event for the Asian Championships which begin in Bangkok on Wednesday.

With that performance, Anas should have walked into the relay team for the Bangkok Asians.

But there was a hitch. Anas, the Asian Games 400m silver medallist, was not a national camper when he ran in the Federation Cup and the AFI has a policy that it would include only national campers in its relay teams for the majors.

He had left the national camp late last year and had been training under his old coach P.B. Jaikumar in Thiruvananthapuram.

That was probably why the AFI did not include Anas’ name in the original list for the Bangkok Asians before the June 11 deadline. But when the AFI announced its team 11 days later, on June 22, Anas’ name figured in the 54-member list and he was marked to run the men’s relay.

A few days before that, Anas had finished as the Indian winner of the 400m (Sri Lankan Kalinga Kumarage had finished first) at the Inter-State Nationals in Bhubaneswar and the AFI probably realised that his presence could do wonders to the relay team in Bangkok.

So how did the AFI include non-national camper Anas for the relay in its Asian Championships team announced on June 22?

“Anas was training in Thiruvananthapuram,” was AFI president Adille Sumariwalla’s reply to The Hindu.

And why was he not included in the original list for the relay despite finishing third in the Federation Cup?

“Entry was not sent as per policy,” said Sumariwalla without giving further details.

One learns that the AFI had requested the Asian Athletics Association for a change after the Inter-State meet, and had put up Anas’ name, which was not accepted by the Continental body.

“Anas joined the national camp after the Inter-State meet, he is now in the national camp,” said Jaikumar.