One of India’s prominent medal contenders at the Rio Paralympics, Ankur Dhama, has been knocked out of the games in a heart-breaking manner, courtesy a ‘push’, or so it seems. The visually-impaired athlete stood second in the heats but failed to make it to the semi-finals as he was out in the first round of the men’s 1,500m T1 event on Sunday.
Ankur Dhama, a student of Delhi University’s St Stephen’s College, has reportedly filed an official complaint with the help of the Sports Ministry that his guide runner, Vipin was pushed by Deniz, owing to which he lost precious time. The International Paralympic Committee is likely to take a call soon.
Ankur clocked a time of 4 minutes and 37.61 seconds in Heat 1 behind Turkey’s Semih Deniz, who stood first and advanced with 4 minutes and 11.75 seconds. His timings were not good enough to fetch him a place in the semis as per the rules – only the group winners and the three best losers from the first round could progress.
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