Athletics
Like 'Mankading' in Athletics: Indian relay team's failed appeal against USA
World Athletics Championships 2023: The alleged infraction that the USA team did to keep India in 2nd place in the men's relay qualifiers was 'like Mankading', says Tejaswin Shankar.
Justin Robinson of USA and Rajesh Ramesh of India jostle for space during the men's 4x400m relay heats at the World Athletics Championships 2023 (Screenshot)
The Indian men's relay team suffered something like 'Mankading' to finish behind USA in the 2023 World Athletics Championships semifinal heats, said Indian high jump national record holder Tejaswin Shankar.
The Indian men's 400m quartet qualified for Sunday's final with an Asian record time of 2:59.05, but Indian fans located a flashpoint in the race for which USA could have been disqualified.
The Indian team also lodged an appeal after American Justin Robinson appeared to jostle with Rajesh Ramesh on the back straight of the anchor leg, but the appeal was denied by the World Athletics jury. India and USA will be part of an 8-country field in the final, which also includes Great Britain, Jamaica, Botswana, Italy, France and Netherlands.
Tejaswin Shankar's analysis of the alleged foul was that what the American Robinson did was something like the 'mankading' dismissal in cricket, where the athlete uses gamesmanship to the permissible limit to gain an edge over the opponent.
"Very interesting. Somewhat like Mankading I’d say. Inner lane is so precious because it’s the shortest route to finish. No one’s gonna let anyone have it without a little nudge. ‘An arm’ didn’t follow the shoulder so makes it hard to say for certain," Tejaswin analysed the moment on Twitter.
"Force plays a big role. Both were still moving in the same direction. Didn’t change Rajesh’s running so I’d personally let it slip if I were the judge. But as an athlete I wouldn’t go down without a fight to get the other team DQed," he added.
Robinson himself spoke about the moment when his shoulder went up to protect the inner lane from Rajesh Ramesh, the youngest member of the Indian relay side.
“I was thinking I’ll conserve some energy for the final. But then I could feel something coming up behind me. I didn’t know it was an Indian. But I knew this wasn’t ok. I was like, ‘This isn’t right!’ So, I had to turn it up,” Robinson told Sportstar.
The Indian men's relay team will be in the World Athletics Championships final, looking to break some more records, at 1:05 am on Sunday night.
