PU annuls taekwondo meet, players fume

Deepankar Sharda
Tribune News Service 
Chandigarh, January 15 

Just as the winners of the Panjab University Inter-College Poomsae (Taekwondo) Championship were getting ready for the medal ceremony, the Directorate of Sports, Panjab University, cancelled the tournament abruptly citing the failure to provide the tournament schedule to all its affiliated colleges. Not only this, the organisers also annulled the results of the selection trials for the inter-university team.

Sources said the PU officials failed to inform all its affiliated colleges about the tournament schedule in time, which led to some of the teams missing out on the competition. 

Panjab University Deputy Director (Sports) Rakesh Malik remained unavailable to comment on the issue. However, one of the organising committee members claimed that no such tournament was organised. “No tournament was held today. There were only trials. The proper information could not be sent to some colleges and the same has been rectified. The trials to select the inter-university team will be now held on Wednesday,” he said. 

The Tribune has accessed recorder sheets and the list of selected players, approved by a five-member committee, for the inter-university championship. According to the recorder sheet, Post Graduate Government College, Sector 11, GGDSD College, Sector 32, Sri Guru Gobind Singh College, Sector 26 and Panjab University Campus participated in both individual and team events. 

GGDSD College Physical Education Assistant Professor Rakesh Verma said, “The tournament was cancelled by the authorities after the bouts were over. The hosts did not provide any information to me or my college. Our players got to know about the date and timings from their own sources. We were there at the Panjab University on Tuesday, the authorities organised the tournament and trials, but later cancelled it.”  

Some of the affected players have threatened to stage a protest on Wednesday as they were made to pay the price for authorities’ negligence. “We are not at fault if certain colleges were not informed about the dates. The authorities are trying to please some colleges by defending their own mistake. Cancelling a tournament after organising bouts and trials makes no sense,” said a player. 

The department is expected to host the inter-college takewondo championship on Wednesday. 

“The match officials organised the events and declared the first-four winners. If the authorities knew of their mistake, they should not have conducted the tournament at all. We have been here since morning and they have wasted our time,” said another player.