Bar trouble mars day 1 at circuit meet

Bar trouble mars day 1 at circuit meet

Bangalore, July 6: Although four National marks and one Asian mark was bettered, the second Domestic Circuit Athletics meet got off to a disastrous start on Wednesday with the officials at the high jump pit committing a blunder. The event itself was conducted only to test the claims of Bobby Alloysius and she was the lone jumper in the fray.

``The officials made the wrong announcement about the height of the bar,'' said AAFI Technical Committee chairman Kripal Singh, who inspected the height. ``The bar fell off during Bobby's first attempt, in the process bringing down the height and the officials did not check when they replaced the cross-bar for the second attempt. It is certainly a matter of carelessness.'' Well, the carelessness this time was a little too much.

Shattered by the change, Bobby attempted to clear 1.90 metres and failed. Going by the mood she was in, it would have been a surprise, including for herself, if she had cleared it.

At the end of the day, AAFI vice-president AK Banerjee announced a cash award of Rs 4,000 saying ``even 1.85 metre is a good performance,'' but the real reason was too obvious.